TALEX  OF  THE 
J-UN-LAND 


VERNERZ.REED 


TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 


Tales  of  the 

SUN=LAND 


By  VERNER  Z.  REED 

Author  of  "LO=TO-KAH" 

Illustrated  by 

L.  MAYNARD  DIXON 


'  In  the  sad  Southwest,  in  the  mystical  Sun-land, 
Far  from  the  toil,  and  the  turmoil  of  gain ; 
Hid  in  the  heart  of  the  only — the  one  land 
Beloved  of  the  Sun,  and  bereft  of  the  rain.'' 


MDCCCXCVII 

CONTINENTAL  PUBLISHING  CO. 
New  York  and  London 


COPYRIGHT,   1S97,   BY 
CONTINENTAL  PUBLISHING  CO. 


To  My  Wife 
MARY  DEAN  REED 


1^29783 


C     O     N     T 


E     N     T     S 


PAGE 

AN  ENCHANTED  NIGHT     --.---  17 


THE  CARIB  QUEEN        ------  33 

THE   HERALD   OF    THE    GREAT    WHITE 

CHRIST     --------  59 

THE  LAST  MAN  OF  A  NATION     -        -        -  93 

IN   THE  CAVERNS   OF  ULO        -        -        -        -  107 

LOST  PUEBLO           -------  159 

A  CIVILIZED   HEATHEN       -----  181 

THE  BRUJA  BONITA     -„..--  J95 


FRONTISPIECE,   ''He  could  see  so  much  that  he  was 
afraid  at  first  '^        ------         - 

OPPOSITE    PAGE 

The  tall  house  in  the  valley  ------  20 

''Once  more  the  hand  grew  warm  within  my  clasp  *^       -  26 

""We  entered  the  gate  of  the  sleeping  city^^   -         -  46 

"She  looked  upon  me  in  wonder'^    .         .         .         .  50 

"  When  I  wander  in  the  desert,  sometimes  she  comes  to  me  **    56 

"But  there  was  no  water  ^^        ------  68 

"  He  led  the  way  to  his  own  house  nor  did  he  speak  ^'       -  84 

"Casca  told  him  all  the  tale  of  the  Christ''        -        -        -  86 

"  I  am  left  here  alone  with  my  sacred  fire ''       -        -         -  102 

The  cavern  of  the  dead    -        -        -        -        -        -        -  120 

"Hold  up  your  right  hand!''    ------  142 

"It  reared  its  horny  head  high  in  the  air  "         -         -         -  150 

"  They  stood  on  the  house-tops  and  prayed '^    -        -        -  162 

"And  the  death  wail  was  heard  afresh  in  every  hour"  172 

"  The  mighty  waters  that  cover  Lost  Pueblo "          -        -  176 

"I  stood  on  my  housetop  and  cursed  the  people"       -         -  192 

"  He  gazed  into  the  fire  for  a  time  in  silence  "  -         -         -  214 

"Faustino  fired  down  the  gulch"      -----  236 

"  Up  this  perilous  ascent  the  boy  and  girl  made  their  way  "  238 


AN  ENCHANTED  NIGHT 


PARTY  of  overland  travelers  \vere 
one  night  seated  in  the  little  bar- 
room of  a  country  hotel  in  the 
western  border  of  Arizona.  To 
pass  the  time,  the3'  indulged  in 
stor^'-telling.  The  stories  finally  drifted  into  tales 
of  goblins,  ghosts  and  spooks,  and  one  gentle- 
man related  the  following  tale,  which  he  declared 
was  a  true  one,  and  which  he  called : 

''an  enchanted  night." 

Through  the  slow  hours  of  a  hot  August 
day  I  had  ridden  along  heated,  dusty  roads, 
and  at  night  I  stopped  at  a  lonely  house  in  a 
little  valle\'  to  seek  shelter  and  food  for  myself 
and  my  tired  horse.  As  I  reined  up  in  front  of 
the  house  I  saw  no  sign  of  life ;  not  a  man  or  a 
woman  or  a  horse  or  a  cow  or  a  fowl  or  any 
living  thing  could  be  seen,  and  the  melancholy 

19 


20  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

quiet  that  was  settling  over  the  place  Avas 
oppressive.  However,  there  Avas  no  other  house 
for  a  long  distance.  A  storm  was  brewing,  the 
night  was  upon  me.  I  and  ni3^  horse  were 
weary  and  hungry,  and  I  halloed  lustih^  to 
learn  if  this  strange  place  were  inhabited.  After 
I  had  called  loudly  several  times,  an  old,  old 
v^oman  came  to  the  door.  She  was  bent  almost 
double  and  her  flesh  was  of  the  yellow-parch- 
ment color  so  often  seen  in  people  of  extreme 
age.  Her  thin,  white  hair  floated  about  her 
head  and  her  jaws  were  continually  ^vorking 
as  though  she  were  unceasingly  mumbling  to 
herself.  She  looked  at  me  with  a  vacant  ex- 
pression, and  was  turning  to  hobble  into  the 
house  again  when  I  asked  if  I  could  have  lodg- 
ing for  the  night. 

She  muttered  some  words  that  I  took  for 
an  assent,  and  beckoned  me  into  the  house.  An 
old  man,  wearing  a  tasseled  cap  upon  his  head 
and  leaning  upon  a  cane,  tottered  out  upon  the 
porch.  He  shaded  his  eyes  with  his  hand  and 
looked  at  me  for  a  moment,  then  he  turned 
awa3^  and  called  out : 

"Jade,  jade,  come  here !  " 

In  answer  to  his  call  a  being  in  the  form  of 


The  tall  house  in  the  valley. 


.4iV   EXCHANTED    XIGHT  21 

a  AYoman  came  to  the  house  from  a  little  grove 
near  b3\  She  was  tall  and  ungainh^,  with  brutal 
features  and  muscular  limbs,  apparently  about 
forty  3'ears  of  age,  barefooted,  bareheaded,  and 
clad  onh'  in  a  short,  ragged  skirt  of  some  rough 
material,  and  a  torn  waist.  Hei  gra^^sh-red 
hair  fell  unkempt  over  her  bare  shoulders ;  her 
eyes  rolled  as  though  she  were  in  a  fit ;  her  bony 
hands  clasped  and  unclasped  themselves  spas- 
modically, and  a  thin,  white,  frothy  foam  was 
gathered  at  her  mouth.  She  stared  at  me  for  a 
moment  and  then  tossed  her  shagg\'  head  and 
uttered  the  wildest,  uncanniest,  ghostliest  laugh 
I  had  ever  heard  ;  all  the  time  clasping  and  un- 
clasping her  hands,  and  quivering  and  jerking 
all  over  her  body  like  one  with  the  dance  of  St. 
Vitus. 

"Idiot,"  said  the  old  man  to  her,  "stable 
and  feed  the  stranger's  horse  I  " 

She  snatched  the  reins  from  my  hand  and 
ran  off  toward  the  stable,  running  so  fast  that 
the  horse  galloped  to  keep  pace  with  her.  The 
old  man  then  turned  to  me  and  said : 

"The  idiot  w411  tend  your  horse  well ;  have 
no  fear.     Come  in." 

I  followed  him  into  the  house,  which  w^as  a 


22  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

tall,  wooden  building  with  large  windows.  The 
inside  was  but  poorly  furnished,  there  being  no 
carpets  on  the  floors,  no  pictures  or  papering 
on  the  walls,  and  only  such  articles  of  plain 
furniture  as  were  absoluteh^  necessary-. 

The  old  man  gave  me  a  chair,  and  then  he 
and  the  old  crone  sat  mumbling  and  inuttering 
to  themselves,  and  pa^^ing  no  heed  to  me  what- 
ever. Soon  the  crazy  Avoman  returned  from 
stabling  my  horse,  and  filled  the  room  with  her 
w^ild  laughter.  The  old  man  ordered  her  to 
prepare  supper,  and  she  writhed  and  shambled 
out  of  the  room,  but  soon  put  her  head  in  at 
the  door  again,  and  the  old  man,  saN^ing  the 
single  word  "Supper,"  went  into  the  next 
room ;  I  followed  him,  and  was  followed  in  turn 
by  the  mumbling  old  woman. 

The  meal  was  served  on  a  plain  deal  table, 
and  consisted  of  wild  berries,  fruits,  uncooked 
vegetables  and  water.  The  lunatic  sat  opposite 
me  and  continually  caused  my  blood  to  run 
cold  with  her  peals  of  weird  laughter,  that  rose 
sometimes  to  a  shriek,  and  then  quavered  and 
trembled  like  the  hopeless  moan  of  a  lost  soul. 

Supper  was  soon  finished,  and  I  partially 
quieted  my  unstrung  nerves  with  a  pipe,  and 


AX  ENCHANTED    NIGHT  23 

then  told  the  old  man  that  I  should  like  to 
retire.  He  called  to  the  crazy  woman,  pointed 
to  me,  and  said,  "  Bed."  The  lunatic  took  up  a 
candle  and  led  the  way  through  a  door  and  up 
a  winding,  creaking  stair-case.  As  soon  as  we 
had  reached  the  first  landing  she  executed  a 
veritable  demon's  dance  about  me,  clutching  at 
me  with  her  talon-like  hands,  and  screeching 
and  howling  like  a  ver^^  devil.  I  feared  she 
would  attack  me,  but  she  turned  and  led  the 
way  up  another  stairway  and  into  a  large,  bare 
room,  and  then,  after  making  one  more  savage 
limge  at  me,  she  turned  and  ran  screeching 
down  the  stairs. 

The  uncanniness  of  the  place  and  people 
had  completeh^  unstrung  my  nerves,  and  I  sank 
trembling  and  exhausted  into  a  chair.  I  was 
in  a  very  large  room  that  contained  only  the 
chair  and  a  bed  that  looked  like  a  bier.  The 
storm  had  not  come  up,  and  the  moon,  which 
had  now  risen,  cast  queer  shadows  upon  the 
bare,  white  walls,  and  a  long,  white  curtain 
floated  in  the  breeze  that  blew  through  the  open 
windows.  As  soon  as  I  had  in  a  measure 
regained  my  composure,  I  bolted  fast  the  door 
and  felt  more  secure  than  I  had  since  entering 


24  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

that  strange  house.  If  I  could  have  stolen  out 
unobserved  and  taken  my  horse,  I  would  have 
gone  away  and  ridden  all  night  rather  than 
stay  in  that  horrible  place,  but  the  fear  of 
encountering  the  lunatic,  and  an  uncertainty 
about  being  able  to  find  my  horse,  detained 
me,  so  I  undressed  and  threw  myself  wearily 
upon  the  bed.  My  tired  muscles  and  unstrung 
nerves  soon  succumbed  to  nature's  call,  and  I 
fell  asleep  and  must  have  slept  an  hour  or 
more. 

I  awoke  suddenly  with  a  strange  feeling 
that  some  one  was  in  the  room.  I  arose  in  the 
bed,  on  my  elbow,  and  looked  around  me.  The 
moon  had  gone  almost  down,  leaving  the  room 
nearly  dark,  and  the  shadow  of  the  flapping 
curtain  moved  darkly  up  and  dowm  the  wall. 
The  breeze  had  grown  cooler  and  stronger  and 
was  blowing  refreshingly  into  the  room.  The 
oppressive  heat  was  gone,  and  to  make  myself 
more  comfortable  I  pulled  another  sheet  over 
me  and  then  lay  back  upon  the  pillow,  but  not 
asleep.  After  lying  quieth^  for  a  little  while,  I 
heard  a  low,  faint  sigh  at  the  side  of  my  bed. 
What  new  horror  was  I  to  encounter  in  this 
place  of  bewitchment  ?     I  gathered  my  courage. 


I 


AN  EXCHAXTED    XIGHT  25 

Opened  my  eyes,  looked  at  the  place  from 
Avhence  the  sigh  seemed  to  come,  but  saw 
nothing.  Thinking  my  over- wrought  nerves 
had  excited  m\"  imagination  and  led  me  into 
error,  I  again  la\'  down  upon  my  pillow  and 
once  more  closed  my  e\'es.  Then  again  I  heard 
the  sigh,  this  time  beginning  near  my  face  and 
seeming  to  rise  toward  the  ceiling,  and  grow 
fainter  as  it  rose.  I  shuddered,  and  kept  my 
e\'es  closed  in  fear.  My  senses  had  not  deceived 
me  this  time,  for  the  sound  was  unmistakable. 
Cold  drops  of  perspiration  broke  out  upon  me, 
my  blood  seemed  to  chill  in  my  veins,  and  my 
flesh  to  creep  on  my  bones.  Once  again  I  heard 
the  sigh,  but  nearer  and  more  distinctly  than 
before,  and  I  seemed  to  feel  a  light,  cold  breath 
upon  my  throat.  I  covered  my  face  with  the 
sheet,  but  again  I  heard  the  sigh,  stronger  than 
before,  and  it  ended  in  an  almost  unintelligible 
whisper  of  the  word:  "Claderven."  In  very 
desperation  I  uncovered  my  head  and  opened 
my  eyes,  and  there  by  my  bed  1  saw  a  white, 
filmy,  misty  object,  whose  shape  I  could  scarcely- 
make  out  in  the  darkness. 

It  hovered  for  a  moment  between   the  bed 
and  the  ceiling,  and   then  seemed  to  condense 


26  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

and  come  closer  to  me,  and  I  could  distinctly 
hear  the  whispered  word  *' Claderven."  My 
terror  was  leaving  me,  and  I  sat  upright  in  the 
bed  and  looked  at  the  being.  As  I  looked,  it 
assumed  more  definite  shape,  and  I  could  dimly 
discern  the  outline  of  a  face  and  two  cold, 
staring  eyes.  I  put  out  my  hand  to  it,  and 
said: 

"Demon,  spirit,  wraith,  whatever  j^ou  are, 
what  do  you  want  with  me  ?  " 

Again  came  the  whispered  word  "  Clader- 
ven,"  floating  like  a  breath  of  air  in  the  room ; 
a  hand  was  stretched  to  me  from  the  misty 
form,  and  a  hollow  voice  said:  "Take  my 
hand." 

I  took  the  outstretched  hand  in  mine;  it 
was  cold  and  clammy  within  my  clasp,  and 
caused  cold  chills  to  run  up  and  down  my  body. 
But  as  I  held  the  hand,  the  form  of  the  wraith 
grew  more  and  more  distinct ;  the  features  took 
on  the  rounded  outline  of  a  woman's  face;  the 
hand  and  arm  grew  warm,  and  the  eyes  began 
to  sparkle. 

"  Being,"  said  I,  "  what  are  you  ?  " 

"Claderven,  I  am  thy  lover,  Zorah,"  she 
slowly  replied,  in  a  low  voice. 


AN  ENCHANTED  NIGHT  27 

'*  But  my  name  is  not  Claderven,  and  I  have 
never  known  anyone  named  Zorah,"  I  replied, 
releasing  the  wraith's  hand  which  I  had  held. 

Instantly  the  form  grew  dim  again,  the 
color  left  the  face,  the  lustre  faded  from  the 
e3"es,  and  when  she  spoke  again  her  voice  was 
very  w^eak. 

''Hold  my  hand  again,"  she  said,  ''for  all 
m3^  strength  comes  from  you.  Hold  my  hand 
and  I  will  talk  with  3^ou/^ 

Again  I  took  the  clammy  hand,  which  once 
more  grew  warm  within  my  clasp,  and  the  face 
and  eyes  beamed  wdth  life  again.  I  could  see 
her  white,  beautiful  bosom  gleaming  and  heav- 
ing beneath  her  robe  of  mist,  and  she  said  to 
me: 

"You  are  Claderven  to  me,  whatever  your 
name  ma^^  now  be  upon  the  earth.  Twelve  long 
centuries  ago,  in  a  sunn^^  land  in  the  East,  you 
and  I  were  lovers.  You  died,  and  on  account  of 
some  sin  ^''ou  had  committed,  you  were  con- 
demned to  be  born  again  upon  the  earth,  and 
forget  your  first  life;  but  when  I  died — which 
was  from  grief  for  you — I  lived  among  the 
spirits,  grieving  for  you  ever,  and  thereby  incur- 
ring the  mighty  displeasure  of  those  who  rule 


28  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

that  life,  for  allowing  my  longings  to  go  down- 
ward to  an  earthly  love.  Long  years  I  have 
been  separated  from  you, wearing  my  soul  away 
in  almost  hopeless  hope  of  ever  finding  you. 
For  you  I  have  been  sorely  punished,  and  made 
to  be  of  the  vile  of  the  earth.  But  to-day  I  find 
you,  and  to-night  I  come  to  you  as  a  bride 
comes  to  the  couch  of  her  lord  after  a  long 
waiting.  Kiss  me  and  fill  me  with  the  strength 
of  your  life,  and  see  how  fair  3^our  Zorah  is." 

She  pressed  her  lips  to  mine,  and  seemed  to 
drink  in  my  very  breath,  and  as  she  kissed  me 
her  form  expanded  into  perfect  womanhood. 
Her  fair  proportions,  delicately  moulded,  were 
yet  strong  as  steel ;  her  breast  rose  and  fell  in 
ecstasy,  and  her  eyes  sparkled  with  the  light  of 
love.  The  very  elements  seemed  to  grow  beau- 
tiful with  her ;  perfume  floated  in  the  air,  and 
soft  sounds,  like  the  strains  of  distant  music, 
fell  upon  the  hearing.  She  twined  her  rounded 
arms  about  me,  and  from  then  I  took  no  heed 
of  time,  and  knew  not  how  long  we  had  been 
thus  till  a  voice  was  heard  near  us.  On 
looking,  we  saw  a  shadowy  form  that  rose 
majestically  beside  us.  Zorah  covering  her  face 
in  her  hands,  w^ept,and  begged  the  forgiveness 


AN  EXCHAXTED  XIGHT  29 

of  the  being,  which  seemed  to  be  a  ruler.  With 
a  look  of  great  sorrow,  it  said : 

''Zorah,  fair  of  form  but  lewd  of  heart,  go 
again  and  mingle  \vith  the  low  and  mean  of  the 
earth ;  to  be  the  lowest  of  the  low,  the  despised 
of  all.  To-day  the  time  of  your  punishment  was 
ended ;  to-night  again  you  broke  the  com- 
mand;  go  again! " 

Immediately  after  he  had  spoken  I  heard  the 
shrieking  laugh  of  the  idiot  below  stairs,  and 
Zorah  and  the  spirit  had  faded  from  my  view. 
The  many  strange  incidents  of  the  night  had 
completely  overcome  me  and  I  fell  asleep  and 
slept  until  I  was  awakened  hy  a  loud  pounding 
on  the  door.  I  arose  to  find  that  the  morning 
had  dawned,  and  the  sunlight  was  streaming 
through  the  window.  I  hastily  dressed  and 
descended  the  stairs.  In  the  lower  hall  I  met 
the  idiot, who  was  shrieking  and  moaning  there. 
When  I  came  to  her  she  ceased  her  screaming ; 
for  a  little  while  her  face  stopped  writhing,  and 
in  a  low  voice  she  said  to  me : 

"I  am  Zorah.  This  form  and  this  derange- 
ment is  my  curse,  placed  upon  me  in  punishment 
ofmy  love  for  you.  I  had  served  out  the  long 
years  of  my  expiation,  and  last  night  I  would 


30  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

have  been  free,  had  not  some  strange  destiny 
sent  3^ou  to  me.  Now,  for  a  time,  the  length 
of  which  I  do  not  know,  I  must  again  inhabit 
this  hideous  form.  Yet  I  am  glad  3'ou  came;  I 
had  waited  long, — 1  had  waited  long.  You  will 
come  again,  sometime,  some  place,  for  ours  are 
kindred  destinies  !     Good  bye." 

As  she  ceased  speaking,  the  light  of  reason 
faded  from  her  face.  Her  eyes  began  to  roll 
again,  her  mouth  to  froth ;  she  clutched  at  me 
and  might  have  done  me  harm,  had  she  not 
fallen  in  a  fit  upon  the  floor.  I  hurried  away, 
and  upon  the  porch  I  found  the  old  man  ;  I 
offered  him  payment  for  my  lodging,  but  he 
struck  at  me  with  his  cane  and  pointed  lue  to 
my  horse,  which  was  bridled  and  saddled  ready 
for  the  day's  journey'. 

I  rode  rapidly  away,  the  horse  seeming  to  be 
as  eager  as  I  to  leave  the  place,  and  I  did  not 
stop  until  I  came  to  a  farm  house  full  five  miles 
distant.  The  farmer  was  hoeing  in  his  yard, 
and  I  drew  rein  and  asked  him  who  lived  in  the 
tall  house  in  the  valley.  He  looked  curiously  at 
me,  and  then  called  out : 

''Ho,  wife!  Here  is  another  who  talks  of 
the  tall  house  in  the  valley ;   or  may  be  it  is  the 


^.Y  ENCHANTED  NIGHT 


31 


same  one  with  his  appearance  changed,  for  I  do 
believe  it  is  all  bewitchment." 

He  w^as  afraid  at  first,  but  after  some  parley 
he  told  me  that  once  every  3^ear,  during  the  hot 
days  of  August,  a  stranger  rode  by  his  farm  with 
troubled  looks  on  his  face,  and  made  strange 
inquiries  about  a  tall  house  in  the  valley. 

"And  there  is  no  tall  house  in  the  valley," 
said  the  farmer,  "for  in  this  scantily  settled 
region  I  know  every  house  for  full  twent^^  miles, 
and  there  is  none  such  as  you  describe,  unless 
the  devil  rears  it  in  the  night,  to  work  his  evil 
there,  and  causes  it  to  vanish  in  the  day." 


THE  CARIB  QUEEN 


NE  sultry-  day  I  T\"as  wandering 
aimlessly  about  the  dusty  back 
streets  of  Ciudad  Juarez.  A  few 
half-naked  children  were  lying  on 
the  ground,  asleep  in  the  sun. 
Occasionally  a  policeman  in  a  dirt^-  white  uni- 
form slouched  b^^  lue  with  his  big  revolver  swing- 
ing at  his  side.  A  burro  train  loaded  with 
fagots  was  ambling  down  the  street  in  charge 
of  a  Avoman  and  a  bo^^ ;  and  a  motionless  Mexi- 
can, Avith  his  sombrero  pulled  over  his  eyes,  was 
leaning  listlessly  against  an  adobe  wall. 

I  spoke  to  the  man,  and  he  bowed,  but  he 
did  not  remove  his  hat  as  the  peons  always  do. 
After  he  had  bowed  he  turned  his  eyes  from  me 
to  vacancy,  and  seemed  to  forget  my  existence. 
I  was  tired,  however;  there  is  but  little  shade 
in  Juarez,  and  I  determined  to  share  the  shelter 
of  that  Avail  with  the  man  and  make  him  talk. 


36  TALES  OF   THE  SUN- LAND 

When  I  had  given  him  a  Vera  Cruz  cigar  and  a 
drink  from  -mj  flask  he  deigned  to  take  an  in- 
terest in  me,  and  after  I  had  sat  tinder  the  wall 
with  him  for  an  hour  he  told  me  a  storv^  The 
story  may  not  be  true,  and  it  certainly  seems 
improbable;  but  the  telling  of  it  had  a  strange 
effect  upon  the  man,  and  he  told  it  in  seeming 
sincerity ;  so  I  think  after  all  it  may  not  be 
wholly  false.  The  story  is  written  here  in  the 
man's  own  words,  just  as  he  told  it  to  me  that 
day  while  the  slanting  rays  of  the  burning  sun 
were  shimmering  mercilessly  down  upon  the 
mud  walls  of  Ciudad  Juarez. 

'^  M3^name  is  Pablo  Garcia,  and  I  am  a  man 
for  whom  nature  intended  better  things  than 
lying  idle  in  the  shade  of  mud  w^alls  in  a  poor 
border  town.  The  ancestors  of  my  famih'^  can 
be  traced  back  in  unbroken  lines  for  eight 
hundred  3"ears,  and  some  of  them  were  the  men 
who  helped  to  found  the  kingdom  of  Castile.  I 
was  born  in  the  Cit3'  of  Mexico  and  educated  in 
Spain,  and  when  my  father  died  he  held  my 
hand  in  his  and  told  me  I  might,  if  I  willed,  be 
one  day  the  President  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico. 
It  is  well  that  my  father  died ;  and  it  is  well 
that  we  poor  creatures  of  the  earth  have  death 


THE  CARIB  QUEEN  37 

to  hope  for.  If  we  had  not  that  hope  we 
should  surely  all  go  mad. 

"I  was  ever  an  adventurous  man.  Just  after 
I  came  from  college  I  joined  a  revolution  against 
the  government,  and  w^as  made  a  colonel.  It 
was  promised  me  that  I  should  be  the  governor 
of  a  state.  Then  my  old  father  came  to  me 
with  tears  in  his  e^^es  and  besought  me  not  to 
rebel  against  a  government  that  was  so  ready 
to  honor  him  and  his,  and  for  love  of  him  I 
threw  aside  my  uniform,  withdrew  from  the 
rebellion,  and  retired  to  an  hacienda  that  my 
father  owned  in  Yucatan.  I  was  to  remain 
there  but  a  few  months,  until  the  revolution 
was  over  and  my  father  had  secured  me  a  par- 
don, w^hen  I  was  to  go  to  the  capital  and  begin 
the  serious  w^ork  of  manhood. 

''  Yucatan  is  a  dreary  land,  unfit  for  men  to 
live  in,  and  m^'  stay  there  w^ould  have  been 
short  indeed,  if  it  had  not  been  for  a  strange 
tale  I  heard  there  that  incited  the  desire  of  ex- 
ploration within  my  breast.  It  was  rumored 
in  Yucatan  that  there  w^as  a  strange  city  of 
Indians  situated  in  a  remote  part  of  the  penin- 
sula, a  city  w^here  white  men  had  never  been 
and  where  they  were  not  allowed  to  go.   I  could 


38  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

learn  but  little  of  this  city ;  the  Indians  would 
not  talk  of  it,  and  the  white  men  believed  its 
existence  to  be  a  myth,  as  white  men  have  but 
little  faith  in  the  marvelous.  I  believed  the  city 
existed,  and  I  determined  to  find  it,  to  enter  it, 
to  learn  of  its  people  and  their  manners  and 
customs,  and  to  return  to  it  with  soldiers 
and  make  it  as  free  of  entrance  as  any  city  in 
Mexico. 

' '  No  one  would  join  me  in  the  expedition,  even 
the  peons  refusing  to  go  for  pay,  and  I  set  out 
alone.  I  rode  a  mule,  for  only  mules  can  live  and 
thrive  in  the  tierracaliente.  I  rode  for  many  days 
through  the  desert,  sleeping  alone  on  the  sands, 
or  occasionally^  passing  the  night  in  the  hut  of 
some  Indian.  In  time  I  came  to  a  morass  that 
seemed  to  be  impassable,  and  I  could  not  force 
my  stubborn  beast  to  enter  it,  I  believed  that 
the  unknown  city  lay  beyond  this  morass,  and  I 
was  determined  to  cross  it ;  so  I  turned  loose 
the  mule  and  began  to  wade  in  the  mudd\' water. 
The  morass  grew  worse  as  I  advanced,  and  I 
often  thought  I  should  sink,  but  I  was  fortunate 
and  always  managed  to  save  myself  Ida^  grasp- 
ing the  branches  of  trees.  Near  night  I  came 
to  a  small  tract  of  land  that  lay  higher  than 


THE  CAR  IB  QUEEN  39 

the  water,  and  I  slept  there.  The  next  day  I 
struggled  onward  through  the  swamp,  and  at 
night  climbed  into  a  forked  tree  to  sleep,  as 
there  was  no  land  that  lay  above  the  water. 

"In  this  manner  I  struggled  in  that  dismal 
forest  swamp  for  nine  da3's.  On  the  tenth,  just 
as  I  was  ready  to  give  up  and  die,  I  came  to  dry 
land.  I  was  covered  with  slime,  my  feet  and 
limbs  were  bleeding,  my  clothes  were  torn  to 
shreds,  I  was  almost  crazed  with  hunger,  and  I 
think  I  could  not  have  lived  out  one  more  day 
in  that  desolate  jungle.  When  I  reached  the  dry 
land  I  gathered  some  wild  berries  and  ate  them, 
and  then  I  la^^  down  and  slept  the  sleep  of 
utter  exhaustion.  I  slept  for  many  hours,  how^ 
man3^  I  do  not  know,  and  when  I  awoke  I  was 
sore  and  stiff;  but  my  strength  soon  partially 
returned,  and  I  paid  but  little  heed  to  my  plight, 
for  I  believed  I  was  near  the  mysterious  city.  I 
cleaned  my  revolver,  washed  m3^self,  put  my 
clothing  in  as  good  condition  as  I  could,  and  set 
out  directh^  into  the  heart  of  the  forest  that  lay 
before  me.  The  forest  was  so  dense  that  I  could 
scarcely  see  the  sky  above  me,  and  I  was  glad 
of  this,  for  without  the  shade  the  heat  would 
have  been  unendurable  to  a  weak  man  on  foot. 


40  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

"I  journeyed  on  for  two  days  more,  and  then 
I  came  to  another  small  swamp.  When  I  had 
crossed  it  I  began  to  see  signs  of  human  inhab- 
itancy. Footprints  were  to  be  seen  in  the  soft 
earth,  I  found  a  shred  of  a  cotton  garment,  and 
I  soon  came  to  a  small  field  of  cotton  and  Indian 
maize.  I  ate  some  of  the  maize  and  slept  near 
the  field,  and  in  the  morning  I  was  awakened 
by  hearing  a  great  noise  like  that  made  b3^  a 
multitude  singing.  I  then  made  my  way  for- 
ward with  great  caution,  for  I  did  not  know 
what  manner  of  people  I  was  approaching,  and 
I  had  heard  fearful  tales  of  the  ferocity  of  the 
Indians  who  dwelt  in  the  undiscovered  city.  I 
made  my  way  steal thil\'  from  one  tree  to  another, 
as  a  wild  Indian  makes  his  way  when  near  an 
enemy,  and  at  last  I  came  within  sight  of  the 
city  I  had  risked  so  much  to  find. 

''The  cit3^  stood  in  the  center  of  an  open 
space  in  the  forest,  and  was  surrounded  by  a 
wall  of  heavy  masonry.  It  was  about  half  a 
mile  from  the  forest  line  to  the  city  wall,  and  I 
feared  greatly  to  enter  the  open  space  that  lay 
between,  as  it  was  filled  with  Indians  in  strange 
garb, who  were  dancing.  By  striking  upon  the 
trunks  of  trees  I  at  last  found  one  that  was 


THE  CAR  IB  QUEEN  41 

hollow  ;  and  upon  climbing  the  tree  I  found  that 
I  could  get  inside  of  it,  which  I  did.  Then  with 
my  knife  I  w^orked  to  make  a  hole  in  the  hard 
wood,  but  by  the  time  I  had  cut  through  the 
trunk  I  found  that  the  dance  was  over  and  that 
the  Indians  had  gone  within  the  cit\"  wall. 

'^  I  remained  inside  the  tree  all  night,  sleep- 
ing very  comfortably,  and  was  awakened  at 
sunrise  b\^  the  sounds  of  the  Indians  dancing 
and  singing  again.  There  w^ere  not  many  of  the 
Indians  when  it  is  remembered  that  they  were 
all  of  the  inhabitants  who  dwelt  in  the  cit^^ 
ThcA^  numbered  about  two  thousand,  men, 
women  and  children,  and  they  were  different 
from  any  Indians  I  had  ever  seen.  In  their 
dancing  they  seemed  exhausted  and  ready  to 
drop  with  w^eariness,  and  I  afterw^ards  learned 
that  they  had  danced  for  four  days  and  had 
fasted  during  all  that  time.  I  could  see  that 
the  dance  was  of  a  religious  nature,  as  all 
Indian  dances  are,  and  a  tall  old  man  with 
flowing  hair  seemed  to  be  the  chief  priest. 

"After  the  dance  had  continued  for  several 
hours  the  priest  and  ten  men  entered  the  walls 
of  the  city.  When  they  returned  the^'  bore  a 
huge  stone  that  was  shaped  like  a  table,  and 


42  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

•Upon  this  stone  they  bound  a  young  Indian  boy, 
who  seemed  to  be  of  a  different  tribe.  They  went 
again  into  the  city,  and  when  they  returned  I 
was  greatly  surprised  to  see  them  leading  a 
white  man  whose  eyes  were  bandaged.  I  sup- 
posed they  were  going  to  kill  the  white  man, 
and  I  carefully  examined  all  the  chambers  of  my 
revolver  to  see  that  they  were  loaded ;  for,  while 
the  Indians  were  a  host  against  two,  I  did  not 
intend  to  see  a  man  of  my  own  blood  slain  by 
wanton  savages  unless  I  essa^^ed  to  rescue  him. 
I  was  just  ready  to  climb  out  of  the  tree  when 
the  old  priest  lifted  up  his  hands,  and  I  was 
greatly  astonished  to  hear  him  say  in  as  good 
Spanish  as  is  taught  in  the  college  at  Madrid  : 

"'Now,  oh.  Father  Sun,  is  the  soul  of  an 
alien  to  be  sent  across  the  great  waters  to  thy 
land  in  payment  for  the  continuance  of  the  life 
of  thy  daughter,  our  Queen.  From  the  numbers 
of  our  enemies  we  have  taken  this  boy,  whose 
heart  shall  bleed  for  thee ;  and  from  the  numbers 
of  the  white  despoilers  we  have  taken  a  white 
skinned  man  who  shall  be  held  and  sacrificed  at 
the  dance  of  the  harvest.  The  eyes  of  this  boy 
who  lies  bound  upon  the  stone  shall  soon  gaze 
into  the  eves  of  Him-Who-Rules-The-World,  and 


THE  CARIB  QUEEN  43 

we  send  him  as  a  token  that  w^e  are  yet  thy 
children  and  are  3'et  faithful.  Oh,  mighty  Father 
Sun,  grant  us  the  blessing  of  continued  life  for 
our  Queen.' 

"  None  of  the  Indians  seemed  to  understand 
what  the  priest  said,  nor  did  they,  as  I  after- 
wards learned ;  for  Spanish  ^' as  not  taught 
to  more  than  three  people  of  that  city  at  one 
time. 

*'  When  the  priest  had  spoken  I  believed  the 
white  man  was  in  no  immediate  danger,  and  I 
remained  within  the  tree.  When  the  sun  was 
exactly  in  the  zenith  the  Indians  knelt,  and  the 
old  priest,  with  a  stone  knife,  cut  out  the  living 
heart  of  the  boy  who  was  bound  to  the  stone, 
and  cast  it,  all  bleeding,  toward  the  sun.  My 
blood  ran  cold  at  the  sight,  and  I  was  sorely 
tempted  to  take  a  shot  at  the  murderous 
heathen,  but  my  better  judgment  told  me  to 
remain  quiet. 

"After  the  sacrifice  a  great  feast  of  maize 
and  meat  was  spread,  and  the  people  ate  like 
famished  wolves.  After  they  had  eaten  they  went 
into  the  city,  some  almost  falling  to  the  ground 
with  sleepiness.  The  priest  led  the  white  man 
away,  the  open  space  was  deserted,  and  when 


44  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

the  sun  went  down  there  was  not  a  sound  to  be 
heard.  I  believed  the  people  were  all  asleep, 
and  I  climbed  out  of  the  tree  and  satisfied  my 
hunger  upon  some  of  the  fragments  of  food  that 
were  left  scattered  over  the  ground.  I  rested 
for  an  hour,  and  then  set  out  to  enter  the  city, 
determined  to  solve  its  mysteries  if  I  lost  my 
life  in  doing  it. 

"Just  as  I  reached  the  gate  of  the  city  I  met 
the  white  captive  I  had  seen  in  the  day.  He 
was  stealing  along  noiselessh',  and  just  as  he 
came  outside  of  the  gate  I  spoke  to  him.  He 
seemed  amazed  to  be  addressed  in  Spanish.  At 
first  he  feared  it  was  the  old  priest,  who  could 
speak  that  language,  and  he  started  to  run.  I 
called  him  back,  telling  him  I  was  a  friend,  and 
when  he  came  we  went  to  the  edge  of  the  forest 
to  talk.  The  man  told  me  he  was  an  exile  from 
Cuba,  having  escaped  from  a  prison  in  that 
island,  and  made  his  way  to  the  coast  of  Yuca- 
tan in  a  ship  in  which  he  had  hidden  himself. 
When  he  reached  Yucatan  he  left  the  ship,  and 
after  wandering  for  a  long  time  in  the  forest 
along  the  coast,  he  was  captured  by  a  band  of 
Indians  who  seemed  careful  not  to  hurt  him, 
and  who  conducted  him  to  the  walled  city  and 


THE  CAR  IB  QUEEN  45 

delivered  him  to  the  old  priest.  In  the  city  he 
was  kept  a  close  prisoner,  seeing  no  one  but  the 
priest,  and  was  never  taken  out  of  his  cell 
until  the  day  he  had  been  led  forth  to  stand  by 
the  boy  who  was  sacrificed.  From  the  old 
priest  he  had  learned  that  the  people  who  dw^elt 
in  the  city  were  Caribs  who  had  fled  from  their 
island  home  in  the  West  Indies  four  hundred 
years  ago.  These  Caribs  were  ruled  by  a  white 
queen,  and  it  was  believed  that  the  life  of  the 
queen  was  prolonged  if  human  sacrifices  were 
made  to  the  sun.  The  queen  was  not  allowed 
to  luarry  nor  to  look  upon  any  living  person  but 
the  priest,  and  her  successor  \vas  provided  by 
capturing  white  girls  from  the  Mexican  cities. 
The  white  race  had  driven  the  Caribs  from  their 
ancestral  island  home,  and  they  believed  that 
the  whites  had  a  right  to  rule  them ;  but  they 
believed  that  if  they  submitted  to  a  white  ruler 
they  would  do  right  to  kill  all  other  white 
people  who  invaded  their  land. 

*'The  Cuban  told  me  all  this,  and  said  he 
had  stolen  away  when  the  old  priest  who 
guarded  him  had  fallen  asleep.  He  begged  me 
to  go  with  him  into  the  swamps  and  strive  to 
escape,  but  I  would  not  go  until  I  had  entered 


46  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

the  city.  I  thought  it  safe  to  enter,  as  the 
Cuban  said  the  people  were  all  asleep  from 
fatigue  and  glutton3^  and  I  prevailed  upon  him 
to  go  with  me  inside  the  walls. 

''The  Cuban  had  no  weapon  but  a  knife, 
but  I  had  my  revolver,  and  with  our  weapons 
in  our  hands  we  entered  the  gate  of  the  sleeping 
city.  The  moon  v^^as  shining  brightly  and  we 
could  see  clearly.  The  houses  of  the  citv  were 
joined  closely  together;  the3^  were  made  of 
heavy  blocks  of  stone,  and  it  seemed  that  the 
city  must  at  some  time  have  held  a  large  popu- 
lation. There  were  no  Avindows  in  the  houses, 
light  being  admitted  through  holes  cut  in  the 
walls.  The  streets  were  crooked  and  narrow 
and  were  paved  w-ith  rocks  worn  smooth  b3" 
the  usage  of  centuries.  There  were  no  animals 
of  any  kind  to  be  seen.  Great  heaps  of  maize 
and  raw  cotton  were  piled  in  the  streets,  and 
meat,  no  doubt  the  flesh  of  wild  animals,  was 
seen  hanging  on  high  poles.  In  one  corner  of 
the  citA^  Avas  a  large  building  of  ^^hite  stone,  of 
beautiful  architecture,  upon  the  walls  of  v^'^hich 
w^ere  fine  carvings.  The  Cuban  said  this  was  the 
palace  of  the  queen,  which  no  one  but  the  priest 
was  allowed  to  enter,  as  it  was  sacrilege  for  the 


"  We  entered  the  gate  of  the  sleeping  city. 


5    c    «c    c      I 


THE  CAR  IB  QUEEN  47 

Caribs  to  look  upon  their  ruler.  When  we  had 
seen  this  much  we  feared  to  stay  longer  in  the 
city  and  were  retracing  our  steps  toward  the 
gate  when  we  met  the  old  priest.  He  had 
awakened  from  his  sleep,  had  found  his  prisoner 
gone,  and  had  started  forth  in  search  of  him. 
When  he  came  upon  us  the  Cuban  struck  him 
fiercely  in  the  face,  and  the  priest,  mad  with 
pain  and  anger,  drove  his  stone  knife  into  the 
Cuban's  breast.  The  Cuban  fell,  but  as  he  fell 
he  caught  the  neck  of  the  priest  in  the  grip  of 
death  and  buried  his  knife  in  his  heart.  The 
two  men  la3^  dead  in  each  other's  arms,  and  I 
stood  alone,  surrounded  by  the  unknown  ter- 
rors of  that  m^^sterious  place. 

^' While  I  was  wondering  how  I  might 
best  make  my  escape  I  heard  the  noise  of  men 
walking  near  the  city  gate,  and  I  knew  I  would 
be  unable  to  leave  the  cit\^  I  believed  I  might 
find  safety  near  the  palace  of  the  queen,  as  the 
Indians  were  not  allowed  .to  go  there,  and  I 
took  up  the  body  of  the  dead  Cuban  and  stole 
toward  the  palace  walls.  There  was  a  massive 
door  entering  the  palace  and  I  tried  it  to  find  if 
it  were  unlocked.  It  opened  easily  and  through 
it  I  entered  a  large  chamber.     I  did  not  know  if 


48  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

I  should  ever  go  out  of  the  door  alive,  but  it 
seemed  to  me  that  I  had  a  better  chance  of  life 
in  the  palace  than  I  should  have  in  the  streets 
w^hen  the  people  learned  that  their  priest  had 
been  killed.  The  room  I  was  in  was  ver^-  high, 
the  ceiling  was  pictured,  the  walls  were  of  the 
color  of  pearls,  and  a  soft  light  came  in  from 
small  holes  in  the  floor.  There  v^^as  a  peculiar 
fragrance  in  the  room  that  revived  my  strength 
and  spirits  as  though  I  had  drunk  of  rich  old 
wine.  I  left  that  room  and  entered  another 
that  was  like  a  large  closet.  There  I  left  the 
dead  body  of  the  Cuban,  after  securing  his  knife, 
and  returned  again  to  the  large  chamber.  When 
I  had  entered,  a  door  was  partly  opened,  and  a 
soft  voice  said  : 

*'  'Who  comes? ' 

*'  The  words  were  spoken  in  Spanish,  and  it 
seemed  strange  to  me  to  hear  my  mother 
tongue  in  that  strange  place. 

*'  The  voice  was  the  voice  of  the  queen.  She 
thought  it  was  the  priest  who  came,  and  she 
bade  me  enter;  and  I  went  through  the  cur- 
tained doorway  into  a  room  that  seemed  like 
the  abode  of  a  fairy.  Precious  stones  were  set 
in  the  walls  and  the  floor,  silken  draperies  and 


THE  CARIB  QUEEN  49 

couches  were  all  around,  and  there  were  figures 
and  friezes  of  exquisitely  carved  white  stone. 
But' I  forgot  the  beauty  of  the  room  w^hen  I 
saw  its  occupant.  I  forgot  danger ;  I  forgot 
the  dead  Cuban  and  the  dead  priest;  I  forgot 
myself;  I  forgot  the  world.  Ah,  Senor,  in  all 
this  w^orld  there  is  no  woman  so  beautiful  as 
was  that  golden  queen  of  the  Caribs  !  Her  skin 
was  white  as  the  bloom  of  the  lih',  her  eyes 
w^ere  like  two  stars,  her  long  hair  w^as  like 
molten  gold  and  w^as  soft  as  fine-spun  silk.  She 
was  tall,  her  form  and  her  limbs  w^ere  as  perfect 
as  statuar3^  and  her  face  was  the  face  of  an 
angel.  She  reclined  upon  a  silken  couch,  she 
was  clad  in  a  clinging  silken  robe,  and  in  all  the 
years  of  my  life  I  never  expect  to  look  upon 
another  w^oman  so  fair  as  she.  She  looked  upon 
me  in  wonder,  but  not  in  fear,  and  she  smiled. 
Her  smile  riveted  the  fetters  of  love  about  my 
heart,  and  I  was  her  slave  from  that  time  for- 
ever. She  asked  me  who  and  what  I  w^as  and 
whence  I  came.  I  know  not  w^hat  reph^  I  made 
her  then,  but  I  know  that,  except  the  old  priest, 
I  was  the  only  man  she  had  ever  seen,  and  she 
did  not  fear  me.  But  w^hen  my  senses  returned 
to  me  I  told  her  who  and  what  I  w^as.      I  told 


50  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

her  of  my  journeying  in  search  of  her  city.  I 
told  her  of  the  Cuban  captive  and  of  his  death, 
and  of  the  death  of  the  priest,  and  I  told  her  of 
Mexico,  and  of  the  white  people,  and  of  the 
world  that  she  had  never  seen  and  had  never  even 
heard  of.  I  told  her,  too,  that  I  was  like  a  wild 
animal  driven  to  bay,  that  the  men  of  her  city 
would  kill  me  if  I  went  into  the  streets  or  tried 
to  escape,  and  I  knelt  and  took  her  hand  and 
asked  her  to  save  my  life.  She  listened  to  me  in 
wonder,  and  marveled  much  at  what  I  said. 
Then  she  took  my  hand  in  hers  and  promised 
she  would  save  ni}^  life.  She  feared,  though, 
that  in  the  morning,  v^hen  the  people  discovered 
that  the  priest  was  dead,  they  would  make  a 
great  search  for  his  slayer,  and  might  even  enter 
her  palace.  I  told  her  of  the  dead  body  in  the 
outer  room,  and  bade  her  tell  the  people,  if  they 
came,  that  the  dead  Cuban  had  slain  the  priest 
and  had  then  fled  to  the  palace  and  died.  I 
believed  then  I  was  safe,  for  the  old  priest  was 
the  only  Carib  who  had  seen  me  or  known  that 
I  was  in  the  city. 

''  The  queen  then  asked  me  many  questions, 
and  her  speech  to  me  was  in  the  purest  Cas- 
tilian,  that  language  having  been  taught  to  her 


She  looked  upon  me  in  wonder." 


THE  CARIB  QUEEN  51 

by  the  priest,  as  it  was  the  language  in  which 
all  their  worship  was  performed.  The  Caribs 
had  learned  this  language  while  yet  they  lived 
upon  their  island,  and  it  had  been  carefully 
handed  down  among  their  priests  ever  since. 

''I  talked  with  the  queen  all  night,  forget- 
ting that  men  ever  slept;  but  in  the  morning 
we  were  disturbed  by  a  summons  at  the  outer 
door.  The  queen  went  into  the  ante-chamber, 
where  was  a  man  who  told  her  that  the  priest 
was  dead  and  that  he  himself  was  now  priest. 
He  told  her  a  white  captive  had  killed  the 
priest,  and  that  the  man  could  not  be  found, 
although  all  the  city  had  been  searched,  and  he 
asked  if  the  man  had  entered  the  palace. 

''The  queen  told  him  that  the  man  had 
come  to  her  palace,  that  she  knew  it  w^as  not 
meet  that  any  but  the  priest  should  come  there, 
and  she  had  killed  the  man  with  her  own  hands. 
Then  she  showed  him  the  dead  body  of  the 
Cuban  in  the  closet,  and  the  priest  believed  her 
and  took  the  body  away,  saying  the  Caribs  were 
thrice  blessed  in  having  a  queen  such  as  she. 

"  The  queen  then  returned  to  me,  and  I  was 
no  longer  in  danger.  In  all  the  time  I  remained 
in  her  palace  no  one  ever  came  but  the  priest, 


52  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

and  he  came  only  to  the  ante-chamber.  I  was  a 
thing  of  great  wonder  to  the  queen,  as  she  had 
never  seen  a  \vhite  man  before ;  and  we  would 
talk  for  hours  together,  our  hands  clasped,  as 
children  talk  of  fairy  tales.  Before  we  knew  it, 
I  and  the  golden  queen  were  plighted  lovers.  I 
know"  not  how  it  first  came  about ;  I  do  not 
remember  what  we  said  to  each  other,  and  I  do 
not  remember  how  many  days  went  b\'  tmtil  I 
took  her  in  ni}-  arms  and  told  her  she  was  all 
the  world  to  me.  I  only  know  that  she  placed 
her  soft  arms  about  my  neck,  and  that  it  was 
natural  that  we  two  should  love  each  other, — 
as  natural  as  it  is  for  the  flowers  to  bloom  in 
the  light  of  the  sun.  I  loved  that  beautiful 
w^oman  with  a  love  such  as  few  men  know.  She 
w^as  a  recluse,  ignorant  of  the  very  existence  of 
the  world,  the  queen  of  a  savage  race  of  bar- 
barians ;  but  her  soul  was  as  pure  as  her  face 
was  beautiful,  and  when  her  arms  were  clasped 
about  me,  and  her  lips  pressed  to  mine,  I  knew 
a  happiness  that  few  men  know  this  side  of 
heaven.  Ah,  querida  hermosa  mia,  the  memory 
of  you  makes  me  at  once  as  happy  as  an  arch- 
angel in  the  highest  heaven  and  as  miserable  as 
the  lost  souls  who  writhe  in  endless  torment ! 


THE  CARIB  QUEEN  53 

"  For  three  months  I  remained  immured  in 
the  palace  of  the  golden  queen,  three  months 
that  sped  by  as  an  hour,  and  then  I  was  seized 
with  the  desire  to  go  from  that  place  and  take 
my  loved  one  w4th  me,  and  I  set  about  devising 
a  way  to  leave  the  city  of  the  accursed  Caribs. 
No  one  ever  disturbed  us,  for  the  people  were 
not  allowed  to  go  near  the  queen,  and  we  might 
have  been  there  until  now^  but  for  my  desire  to 
go  again  among  my  own  people  and  be  joined 
in  wedlock  to  her  I  loved.  We  are  fools  in  this 
world,  Senor;  such  fools  that  we  would  flee 
from  paradise  as  did  our  common  parents  of 
Eden. 

"To  make  our  escape  w^e  arranged  in  this 
wise :  The  queen  called  the  priest  to  her  and 
told  him  that  the  great  spirits  had  blessed  her 
people  with  bountiful  harvests,  and  to  celebrate 
this  it  w^as  her  desire  that  all  the  people,  old 
and  3^oung,  go  four  days'  march  into  the  forest 
and  hold  a  feast  and  a  great  dance.  When  they 
were  gone  we  intended  to  escape.  The  priest  said 
he  would  send  the  people,  but  he  himself  was  not 
allowed  to  go  more  than  an  hour's  march  from 
the  cit3^,  as  it  w^as  his  duty  to  w^atch  over  the 
gates  and  the  palace  of  the  queen.      The  queen 


54   ,  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

then  commanded  that  he  should  go  with  the 
people.  He  vSteadfastly  refused,  sa^nng  that  his 
religion  was  above  even  his  queen ;  and  we  had 
to  be  content  with  that. 

**When  we  knew  the  people  had  gone,  ^Ye 
stole  out  of  the  palace  to  go  to  the  gate  of  the 
city.  It  was  a  glad  sight  to  me  to  see  the  look 
of  great  wonder  that  came  over  her  face  when 
for  the  first  time  in  her  life  my  beautiful  queen 
looked  upon  the  sky  and  the  trees  and  the  outer 
world.  She  took  my  hand  in  hers,  and  \ve  went 
like  two  children  going  out  to  play  in  the 
meadows.  Just  before  we  reached  the  cit}^  gate 
that  accursed  priest  saw  us  and  came  running 
after  us  with  a  bow  and  arrows  in  his  hands. 
He  shot  an  arrow  at  me,  and  it  struck  m\^  arm. 
The  arrow  was  poisoned,  and  the  poison 
seemed  like  molten  fire  running  in  my  veins.  It 
almost  maddened  me  with  pain,  but  I  grasped 
the  hand  of  the  queen  and  sped  on  desperately, 
for  I  was  running  for  my  life  and  for  all  that  life 
held  dear  to  me.  This  priest  was  a  young  man, 
and  could  run  like  a  wild  deer,  and  before  we 
reached  the  swamp  he  overtook  us  and  struck 
me  with  a  stone  knife.  See,  here  is  the  scar  he 
made.      My  poisoned  arm  was  swollen  and  use- 


THE  CARIB  QUEEN  55 

less,  but  with  1113^  other  hand  I  drew  my 
revolver  and  shot  at  the  priest,  slightly  wound- 
ing him  in  the  shoulder.  He  seemed  to  be  a 
man  crazed,  which  I  think  was  because  I  was 
carrving  away  his  queen,  and  there  was  no  fear 
about  him.  He  seemed  to  have  the  strength  of 
a  giant,  and  he  grasped  me  by  the  throat, 
threw  me  to  the  ground,  and  took  my  revolver 
from  me.  He  had  seen  me  shoot,  knew  how  to 
use  the  weapon,  and  as  I  lay  stunned  and  half 
fainting  on  the  ground  he  pointed  it  at  my 
heart.  Just  as  he  fired  the  queen  threw  herself 
forward  to  defend  me,  the  bullet  intended  for 
me  entered  her  bosom,  her  crimson  life  blood 
spurted  in  my  face,  and  she  fell  d\'ing  in  my 
arms.  The  priest  drew  back  in  fear  at  what  he 
had  done,  and  I  forgot  him  for  the  time  in  my 
grief  for  my  loved  one.  Oh,  God  !  I  can  see  her 
now,  her  beautiful  face  upturned  to  me  in  her 
agony  of  death.  She  whispered  to  me  that  she 
would  love  me  in  the  other  world  as  in  this,  and 
then  she  was  dead.  The  memor^^  of  her  dying 
face  has  haunted  me  from  that  hour  to  this,  and 
will  haunt  me  until  I  close  my  caxs  in  death. 

''Do   you  know   what  madness  is?     I  felt 
madness   when  my  beloved   queen  died  in  my 


56  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

arms.  The  blood  roared  in  my  brain  with  a 
noise  like  the  roaring  of  an  angry  sea,  the  sky 
seemed  red,  and  my  strength  grew  until  I  had 
the  strength  of  twentj^  demons.  I  grasped  that 
heathen  priest  by  the  throat,  I  tore  his  very 
flesh  apart,  I  crushed  the  bones  in  his  body,  and 
then  I  wailed  because  he  was  dead  and  beyond 
m^^  power  to  harm  him  further. 

"  Then  sadness  and  grief  came  upon  me  like 
a  cloud.  I  caressed  the  dead  form  of  my  loved 
one,  I  opened  her  beautiful  e\'es  that  were 
alread^^  glazed  with  death,  I  besought  her  to 
speak,  and  I  pra3'ed  that  I  might  be  allowed  to 
die  with  her.  But  she  was  dead  ;  her  pure  soul 
had  gone  to  a  better  world  than  this,  and  all 
that  was  left  me  was  to  return  her  body  to  the 
earth.  I  buried  her  there  by  the  edge  of  the 
swamp,  and  then  I  plunged  once  more  into  the 
wilderness,  and  left  that  accursed  place  where  I 
had  known  more  than  the  gladness  of  life  and 
worse  than  the  bitterness  of  death. 

*^When  at  last  I  found  my  way  again  to 
Mexico  I  found  my  father  upon  his  bed  of  death. 
He  took  m^^  hand  in  his,  told  me  greatness  was 
mine  if  I  would  take  it,  and  then  he  closed  his 
eyes  forever.      I  had  no  taste  for   honors  or 


When  I  wander  in  the  desert,  sometimes  she  comes  to  me. 


t  c  t  c  '•c  c  e 
c  f  «.  «j»  t  c  t 
c         t     t^    c      t  t 


THE  CAR  IB  QUEEN  57 

glory,  my  ambition  was  buried  in  that  cruel 
grave  by  the  morass  in  Yucatan,  and  I  became 
what  I  now  am — a  wanderer  upon  the  face  of 
the  earth,  one  with  no  joy  in  living,  a  saddened 
and  heart-broken  man,  longing  for  the  day  of 
my  death. 

''Long  ago  my  friends  all  deserted  me. 
They  sa^^  I  am  crazy — I,  who  might  bear  one  of 
the  honored  names  of  this  land  if  I  would  not 
wander  like  a  wild  man  in  the  deserts  and  on 
the  border,  The\'  are  the  deceiA'ed  ones,  not  I. 
I  have  known  the  fulness  of  life,  and  I  know 
that  happiness  is  not  in  empty  honors  and  the 
cheers  of  multitudes  of  fools.  And  when  I  wan- 
der in  the  desert,  sometimes  she  comes  to  me, 
she,  my  loved  one.  It  is  not  her  memory  that 
comes,  it  is  she  herself.  Man^-  times  in  the 
darkness  I  can  see  her  beautiful  e^-es  beaming 
upon  me,  I  can  feel  the  sweep  of  her  golden  hair 
above  mj^  face,  I  can  feel  the  deep  joy  of  her 
presence.  Ah,  she  comes  now,  she  comes  now ! 
Do  3^ou  not  see?  Is  she  not  beautiful?  Oh, 
querida,  amante,  darling,  come  nearer ;  touch 
me;  speak  to  me  !  " 

The  man  fell  forward  upon  his  face,  a  white 
froth  gathered   at  his  mouth,   and  there  was 


58 


TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 


such  an  expression  in  his  eyes  as  I  never  saw 
before.  I  feared  that  he  \vas  dying  and  I  hurried 
away  to  find  help  to  carry  him  to  a  house  and 
care  for  him.  I  met  an  officer  of  the  barracks 
strolling  along,  and  I  tried  to  get  him  to  hurry 
to  the  man.  No  man  hurries  in  Mexico,  and  the 
officer  sauntered  along  like  one  who  had  eter- 
nity before  him.  When  we  came  to  the  prostrate 
man  the  officer  looked  at  him  a  moment,  and 
then,  as  he  rolled  a  brown  cigarette  between 
his  fingers,  he  turned  to  me  and  said  : 

'*Do  not  fear,  Senor.  He  will  recover  soon. 
It  is  only  Pablo  Garcia,  the  crazed  one,  and  he 
is  often  thus." 


THE  HERALD  OF 

THE  GREAT  WHITE  CHRIST 


•\  -^.1 


JiilPALD  'OF, 


^  S 


fc     "-^      ^ 


Ti  Great  \w«tCHRisTi! 


rVy^lf^V  F  chronicles   had  been    written   of 
ji^^jJ       TL      all  the  strange  things  that  came 
ipirji       H  p      iQ  pass  in  the  olden  time  in  the 
LiLdM     Southwest,  we  would  know  many 
tales  that  are  now  lost  to  us  for- 
ever.    Races  that  once  flourished  there  are  now 
faded  from  the  face  of  the  earth  and  forgotten 
among  men.  Chiefs  and  priests  and  leaders  have 
vanished  with  their  nations,  and  left  no  records 
for  those  who  came  after  them.     But  sometimes 
a  tale  escapes  the  blight   of  change  and  forget- 
fulness,  and  comes  down  to  us  freighted  with  the 
jo3^s  and  sorrows  of  men  w^ho  have  long  since 
returned  to  the  dust.     To  two  sources   do   we 
owe  the  tale  of  Casca,  the  exile,  the  first  herald 
who  bore  tidings  of  the  Christ  to  the  nation  he 
discovered  in  the  wilds  of  an  unknown  country. 
The  records  left  by  Vasquez  de  Coronado  tell  a 


62  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

little  of  his  strange  story ;  and  high  up  on  the 
side  of  a  frowning  cliff  in  the  Grand  Canon  of 
the  Rio  Colorado,  there  are  words  in  the  Spanish 
language,  chiseled  in  the  living  rock,  that  tell 
more  of  Francisco  Casca.  Some  of  the  stone 
letters  and  w^ords  have  been  obliterated  by  the 
ravages  of  time  and  the  elements,  but  from  what 
remain,  this  meagre  tale  has  been  pieced  out. 
It  is  but  a  simple  tale,  and  is  best  fitted  by 
simple  language;  but  it  has  a  certain  interest 
as  being  a  record  wrested  from  that  silent, 
brooding,  desert  land  of  the  old  Southwest. 

In  the  year  of  our  Lord  1540,  a  band  of 
valiant  Christian  soldiers  set  out  to  conquer  the 
mysterious  land  of  Cibola,  to  bring  the  inhab- 
itants of  its  far-famed  seven  cities  under  the 
sway  of  the  king  of  Spain,  and  to  plant  the 
holy  faith  of  the  Great  White  Christ  among  the 
red  heathen  w^ho  dwelt  in  that  part  of  New 
Granada  that  was  dedicated  to  the  holy 
patron.  Saint  Francis.  Vasquez  Coronado  was 
the  chief,  and  with  him  he  took  fifteen  hundred 
men,  besides  a  thousand  horses,  a  herd  of  cattle, 
and  a  drove  of  sheep.  The  army  was  richly 
furnished    with     silken     trappings,    burnished 


HERALD  OF  THE  GREAT  WHITE  CHRIST       63 

armor,  deadh^  guns  and  swords,  and  instru- 
ments of  music.  Priests  were  with  the  cavalcade, 
for  the  expedition  was  called  a  crusade  of  con- 
version ;  but  the  rank  and  file  of  the  praying 
conquistadores  were  lured  on  by  visions  of  the 
rich  pillage  they  would  loot  in  the  w^alled  cities 
of  Cibola,  more  than  by  zeal  for  spreading  the 
creed  of  the  Christ. 

Among  the  common  soldiers  was  one  3'oung 
man,  Francisco  Casca,  who  cared  more  to  save 
the  darkened  souls  of  the  heathen  than  for  the 
treasures  that  might  be  found  in  their  land. 

A  quiet  man  was  Don  Francisco  Casca,  who 
prayed  much  and  talked  but  little;  and  he  w^as 
not  liked  b^^  the  rollicking,  swearing,  reckless, 
ambitious  soldiers  of  the  cavalcade. 

The  expedition  of  Coronado  was  a  brave 
crusade,  and  the  echoes  of  its  w^onders  and 
glories  are  still  heard  in  the  history  of  the 
Spanish  Southwest.  But  before  the  end  of  the 
campaign,  under  the  tattered  silken  trappings 
of  the  weary  conquistadores,  there  beat  many 
disappointed  hearts ;  for  the  famed  priceless 
jewels  of  Cibola  proved  to  be  onh'  worthless 
turquoise  stones  ;  the  w^ealth  of  the  land  w^as  a 
myth,  and  even  the  holy  cause  of  the  Faith 


64  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

fared  illy,  for  the  dark  heathen  were  tenacious  of 
the  worship  of  their  own  unhallowed  gods. 
Often  the  adventurers  hungered  for  food,  often 
they  were  mad  with  thirst,  and  many  and  deep 
were  the  curses  the^- cast  upon  the  land  of  Cibola. 
The  soldiers  grew  morose  and  sullen,  and  were 
fierce  and  unmerciful  in  their  treatment  of  the 
Indians  they  met  on  the  plains  and  in  the  deserts; 
and  many  men  lost  hope  of  ever  setting  foot  again 
upon  the  genial  soil  of  sunny  Spain.  Coronado 
sought  much  and  found  little,  less  even  than  did 
Francisco  Casca,  who  was  banished  from  his 
fellows  in  the  early  days  of  the  expedition. 

When  the  campaign  was  yet  young,  after  a 
tedious  march  across  a  desert  of  sand,  the 
cavalcade  encamped  b\^  the  river  of  the  brute 
Indians  of  Yuma,  and  the  men  were  suffering 
so  much  from  burning  thirst  that  many  of  them 
threw  themselves  flat  upon  the  banks  and  drank 
from  the  river  like  beasts.  They  remained  in 
this  camp  for  many  da^'S,  refusing  to  go  farther, 
for  they  believed  that  the  land  was  under  a 
curse,  and  that  the  Indians  were  the  children  of 
the  devil.  And  when,  one  day,  an  Indian  came 
toward  the  camp,  he  was  shot  down  by  a  sullen 
soldier.    The  soldier  was  not  punished  by  the 


HERALD  OF  THE  GREAT   WHITE  CHRIST       65 

commander  nor  censured  b^^  the  priests.  Nor 
was  the  Indian  buried ;  he  Avas  left  on  the  sands 
to  rot. 

The  priests  were  indifferent  to  the  killing  of 
the  Indian ;  the  commander  paid  no  heed  what- 
ever; the  soldiers  laughed  and  praised  the  one 
who  shot  him.  But  Francisco  Casca  protested 
that  the  deed  was  a  sin,  and  a  cowardly  act. 
His  protests  stirred  bad  blood,  and  the  men 
cursed  him  for  a  coward  and  a  chicken-hearted 
woman,  and  one  burly  soldier  struck  him  on 
the  head  with  a  staff.  Casca  was  a  brave  man, 
even  though  he  lacked  bluster  and  bravado,  and 
with  his  naked  fists  he  chastised  the  man  who 
had  struck  him  until  the  man  lost  consciousness. 
Then  the  enemies  of  Casca  seized  and  bound 
him,  and  took  him  a  prisoner  to  the  tent  of 
Coronado. 

The  chief  was  sulking  in  his  tent,  sick  at 
heart  over  the  bad  plight  of  his  expedition.  He 
liked  not  to  be  disturbed  because  of  the  fights  of 
unruly  soldiers.  The  men  preferred  the  charge 
against  Casca.  They  sw^ore  that  he  was  in  the 
wrong,  that  he  had  instigated  the  brawl,  and 
that  in  behalf  of  a  brute  Indian  he  had  humili- 
ated and  almost  killed  one  of  the  bravest  and 


66  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

best  men  of  the  conipan3\  Casca  endeavored 
to  speak  in  his  ov^n  behalf,  but  was  angrily 
interrupted  by  his  chief. 

''  B3^  the  holy  Saint  Francis  !  I  would  rather 
kill  every  heathen  in  all  Cibola  than  that  harm 
should  be  done  to  as  good  a  man  as  you  have 
assaulted,"  said  Coronado,  frowning  darkly 
upon  the  prisoner.  ''And  I  am  somewhat 
minded  to  deal  to  you  the  same  portion  that 
was  dealt  to  the  dog  of  an  Indian.  Through 
all  the  campaign  j^ou  have  prayed  when  you 
should  have  fought,  and  3'ou  have  cooled  the 
ardor  of  my  soldiers  by  the  cant  you  have 
alwa\"S  preached  about  saving  the  souls  of  the 
pagan  brutes  who  dwell  in  this  accursed  land. 
Should  we  succeed  in  reaching  the  Seven  Walled 
Cities,  I  believe  you  would  desert  us  and  join  in 
with  the  Cibolans,  should  they  prove  to  be  the 
stronger.  I  like  not  3'our  drivel  and  your  cant, 
and  I  deem  you  unfit  to  be  a  member  of  the 
armj'.  You  love  these  brutish  Indians  better 
than  you  love  the  men  of  your  own  blood ;  and, 
in  punishment  for  3'our  insubordination,  I  de- 
cree that  you  be  discharged  from  my  company, 
without  pay  and  without  honor.  Senor  Cas- 
tenada,"  calling  his  secretary, ''strike  the  name 


HERALD  OF  THE  GREAT  WHITE  CHRIST      67 

of  Francisco  Casca  from  the  roll  of  our  numbers, 
write  him  down  as  lost  in  the  desert,  and  let 
not  his  name  be  written  again  in  the  records  of 
our  adventures. 

"  Francisco  Casca,  rebel  that  you  are,  I  have 
shown  you  merc^'in  not  ordering  you  to  be  shot 
or  hanged.  Now  go  from  my  camp.  Dwell  if 
you  will  among  the  unbaptized  heathen,  and  if 
you  are  seen  again  by  any  man  of  mine,  he  has 
mj  leave  to  shoot  you  down  as  he  would  shoot 
a  wolf.    Now  go  !  " 

And  thus  Francisco  Casca  went  forth  from 
his  fellows,  an  exile,  into  the  desert,  to  find  what 
fare  would  be  his  among  the  unknown  people  of 
that  undiscovered  country.  And  as  he  went  his 
eves  were  filled  with  tears,  and  his  thou2:hts 
turned  in  longing  to  the  vine-clad  hills  of  his 
village  home  in  Spain,  the  home  his  eyes  should 
never  rest  upon  again  in  his  life. 

As  Casca  went  forth  into  the  desert  he 
carried  his  gtm,  a  bag  of  food  and  a  skin  of 
water;  but  he  was  not  allowed  to  take  his 
horse.  The  land  he  was  in  was  an  absolute 
solitude ;  the  onh^  vegetation  was  the  scant 
bushes  of  the  chapparel,  and  the  trees  of  a  kind 
of  high    cactus    that  stood    up    like  sentinels 


68  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

guarding  the  desert.  The  shifting  sands  of  the 
desert  ran  in  waves  like  the  billows  of  the  sea, 
the  heat  of  the  sun  was  deadening,  and  there 
was  no  shade  of  any  kind.  At  night  he  lay 
down  on  the  bare  plain  to  sleep,  and  the  wail- 
ing of  the  hungry  co^^otes  sounded  to  him  like 
the  voices  of  lost  souls.  Thus  for  seven  days 
wandered  Francisco  Casca,  the  exile;  faint, 
thirsty  and  hungry  by  day;  lonel3^  desolate 
and  sorrowful  by  night.  And  after  the  seventh 
day  there  was  no  more  food  in  his  bag,  no  more 
water  in  the  skin,  and  he  was  sick,  foot-sore 
and  w^eary,  and  lost  in  the  cruel,  deserted  land 
of  sand  that,  save  him,  had  no  inhabitants  but 
reptiles  and  wild  beasts. 

For  two  days  after  his  food  was  exhausted, 
Casca  w^andered  on,  stumbling  blindly  from 
v^eakness,  and  often  falling  in  the  sand.  He 
was  now  in  a  great  canon  with  towering 
mesa  walls,  and  through  the  caiion  ran  the  bed 
of  a  stream.  But  there  w^as  no  water.  When 
he  had  been  tw^o  daj's  without  food  or  drink,  his 
tongue  was  swollen  until  it  hung  from  his 
mouth;  his  e^^es  were  dry  and  bloodshot;  his 
lips  were  parched,  and  his  strength  w^as  so  little 
that  scarce  could  he  place  one  foot  beyond  the 


But  there  was  no  water. 


HERALD  OF  THE  GREAT  WHITE  CHRIST       69 

other.  Forgotten  were  his  home  and  loved  ones 
in  strnn^^  Andalusia ;  forgotten  were  the  enemies 
in  the  camp  of  Coronado,  and  all  the  longing  of 
his  soul  was  for  w^ater.  At  last  the  remnant  of 
his  strength  was  gone ;  his  knees  trembled,  and 
he  fell  prone  upon  the  sand. 

''Water,  merciful  God,  or  I  die!"  he 
moaned. 

Did  the  saints  hear  his  pra^^er?  Was  not 
that  w^ater  just  be^^ond  ? 

With  the  strength  born  of  new  hope  he  rises 
from  his  swoon  ;  his  limbs  are  strong  again  ;  he 
leaps  and  runs  toward  the  lake  of  blessed 
water.  The  lake  spreads  miles  wide  before  him ; 
the  sunlight  glints  upon  its  waves,  and  cool 
breezes  blow  from  its  clear  surface  and  fan  his. 
heated  brow. 

"Oh,  thank  God,  thank  God,  for  water!" 
and  he  rushes  to  meet  the  lapping  waves, 
rushes  and  throws  himself  headlong  into  the 
water  to  drink  his  fill  and  bathe  his  burning 
body.  The  roar  of  the  waves  makes  glad  music 
to  his  ears,  the  sheen  of  the  water  is  a  beautiful 
picture  to  his  e^^es,  and  he  opens  wide  his  lips 
to  drink  in  the  blessed  draught  that  God  has 
sent  him — and  then  the  cruel  mirage  fades  from 


70  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

his  bewitched  sight.  He  finds  he  is  lying  prone 
upon  his  face,  and  his  mouth  is  filled  with  the 
accursed  hot  sand  of  the  pitiless  desert ! 

It  was  a  mirage;  and  as  it  faded  from  his 
vision  the  light  of  reason  faded  from  his  eyes, 
and  he  fell,  swooning,  to  die  like  a  famished 
beast  in  the  trackless  wilds  of  the  desert. 

In  a  time  so  old  that  histor\'  knows  it  not, 
the  land  of  the  North,  where  the  tall  mountains 
are,  and  the  land  that  lies  by  the  ocean  of  the 
rising  sun,  were  inhabited  by  nations  of  people, 
who  tilled  the  soil  and  dwelt  in  towms,  and  who 
worshipped  the  might3^  gods  that  dwelt  in  the 
sun.  These  nations  flourished  and  waxed  great 
in  numbers  and  prospered,  until  there  came  an 
evil  time  when  hordes  of  savages  came  down 
upon  them  and  drove  them  away  from  the  lands 
that  were  theirs.  Then  they  journeyed  to  the 
southward  and  to  the  westward,  building 
mounds  as  they  ^vent,  and  filling  the  mounds 
with  offerings  to  their  gods.  And  the  gods  led 
them  to  the  safety  of  a  silent  land  that  was 
hedged  about  \vith  wildernesses  and  desolate 
places ;  and  in  this  land  the^'  builded  towns  and 
planted  fields,  and  for  many  generations  were 


HERALD   OF   THE  GREAT   WHITE  CHRIST       71 

secure  from  the  ravages  of  savage  enemies.  It 
was  the  custom  of  these  nations  to  live  in 
remote  communities  called  pueblos;  and  the 
people  of  each  pueblo,  in  time,  came  to  care  but 
little  for  their  kinsmen  v^^ho  dwelt  in  other 
pueblos.  These  were  the  people  who  are  be- 
lieved by  some  to  have  been  the  ancestral  stock 
of  all  the  tribes  and  nations  of  American  Indians  : 
an  unanswerable  enigma  to  the  scientists,  who 
know^  not  if  the^' sprang  from  the  Mayas,  or  the 
Aztecs,  or  the  Toltecs,  or  from  the  savage  tribes 
of  the  roaming  Indians  of  the  North,  or  whether 
they  are  descended  from  Mongolians,  who  drifted 
with  storms  to  America.  Some  conjecture  that 
they  were  the  parent  race  of  the  semi-civilized 
nations  that  dwelt  in  the  valley  of  Anahuac; 
others  believe  that  they  were  off-shoots  from 
the  Anahuac  nations,  and  to  this  day  they 
remain  as  they  were  found  by  Coronado — the 
unanswerable  riddle  that  scientists  have  been 
trying  to  guess  for  almost  four  hundred  3^ears. 

In  one  of  the  larger  of  the  old  pueblos  there 
dwelt  a  priest  who  desired  to  found  a  new- 
pueblo,  and,  with  a  few  hundred  of  his  people,  he 
journeyed  until  he  came  to  a  small  valley,  where 
water  always  flowed  and  where  the  grass  was 


72  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

thick  and  green.  And  in  this  valley  they  builded 
the  holy  estufa,  and  lighted  the  und^nng  fire. 
The  women  built  houses  and  the  men  planted 
fields;  and  they  named  the  place  the  Pueblo  of  the 
Strangers,  for  the^'  were  strangers  in  a  strange 
land  who  had  founded  it.  It  was  but  seldom 
that  wayfarers  came  to  this  pueblo,  for  it  was 
located  in  a  remote  place,  and  its  people  saw 
but  few  besides  those  of  their  own  nation.  The 
gods  smiled  upon  them ;  their  crops  were  boun- 
tiful ;  their  numbers  increased  with  the  passing 
seasons;  their  hunters  were  successful  in  the 
chase,  and  they  w^ere  a  happy  people. 

When  the  Pueblo  of  the  Strangers  was  many 
generations  old,  it  was  ruled  over  by  a  wise 
chief  whose  name  was  Es-Tah ;  and  he  had  a 
daughter  named  Lo-Eetah,  who  was  more 
beautiful  than  an^-  other  woman  in  all  the 
Pueblo  nations.  Man3^  men  of  her  nation 
sought  Lo-Eetah  for  wife,  but  she  smiled  upon 
none,  and  seemed  to  care  for  no  man.  Many 
of  the  men  Avere  sorrowful  because  of  this,  and 
some  of  them  said  bitterh^  that  Lo-Eetah  must 
expect  the  gods  to  send  her  a  husband  from 
above,  as  she  seemed  to  think  no  man  she  had 
ever  seen  w^as  good  enough  for  her.    But,  though 


HERALD  OF  THE  GREAT  WHITE  CHRIST      73 

the  3^oung  men  pleaded  and  her  father  urged, 
Lo-Eetah  refused  to  wed,  and  she  herself  did 
not  know  why. 

One  day  Lo-Eetah  went  alone  to  the  western 
mesa  to  gather  berries.  She  liked  to  go  alone, 
for  the  jabbering  and  gossip  of  the  other  women 
tired  her;  and  she  liked  to  gaze  awa^^  across  the 
plains  and  mountains  and  deserts,  and  wonder 
what  lands  and  peoples  there  were  at  the  place 
where  the  sun  comes  up,  and  at  the  place 
where  the  sun  goes  down.  On  this  da^^  Eo- 
Eetah,  busy  with  thinking,  wandered  farther 
than  was  her  wont,  and  in  the  heat  of  the  day 
she  found  that  she  had  reached  the  farthest 
edge  of  the  mesa  and  was  man^-  miles  from 
home. 

"  I  must  return  soon"  she  thought,  ''else  my 
father  will  think  I  have  been  borne  awa3^b3'  the 
Navajos." 

But  to  rest  herself  before  returning  she  sat 
down  upon  a  rock,  and  looked  away  over  the 
valley  that  la^^  before  her.  Before  she  had  looked 
long  she  started  up  in  affright,  for  coming 
toward  her  was  a  strangeh^  clad  man,  who  ran 
and  staggered  through  the  sand.  He  seemed 
different  from  any  man  she  had  ever  seen ;  but 


74  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

she  feared  he  was  a  Navajo,  disguised,  who 
sought  to  capture  her  for  a  slave,  and  she  hid 
herself  behind  a  clump  of  cactus  to  see  what 
he  w^ould  do.  The  man  ran  wildh^  one  way 
and  then  another,  and  at  last  fell  forward  upon 
his  face   and  moved  no  more. 

The  maiden  knew  not  what  to  do,  and  for  a 
long  time  she  sat  and  watched  the  silent  figure 
lying  so  still  upon  the  sand.  The  man  lay  so 
motionless  that  Lo-Eetah  thought  he  must  be 
dead ;  but  to  guard  against  a  ruse  she  drew 
her  bone  knife ,  climbed  down  the  side  of  the 
mesa,  and  cautiously  stole  up  to  the  quiet 
figure.  At  last  she  reached  the  man  and  stood 
over  him  in  wonder,  for  the  face  she  looked 
upon  w^as  a  white  face,  and  the  garments  he 
wore  were  different  from  any  she  had  ever  seen. 

She  examined  the  man  to  learn  if  he  were 
dead,  and  found  that  he  3'et  lived ;  so  she  knew 
that  he  had  fainted  from  thirst.  She  opened  her 
skin  of  w^ater,  dashed  some  in  his  face,  and 
forced  some  between  his  parched  lips.  After  a 
long  time  the  man  opened  his  eyes  ;  then  he  sat 
up  and  gazed  at  her  in  wonder,  and  then  he  seized 
her  water-skin  and  drank  all  the  liquid  that 
remained.      When  he  had  finished   drinking   he 


HERALD  OF  THE  GREAT  WHITE  CHRIST      75 

Spoke  to  the  maid  in  a  tongue  which  she  could 
not  understand,  nor  could  he  understand  her 
speech.  She  gave  him  her  basket  of  berries,  and 
he  ate  of  them  ravenoush^  like  a  starving  beast. 
When  he  had  eaten  them  all,  he  took  the  hand  of 
the  maid  in  his  and  smiled  upon  her.  And  in 
return  she  smiled  upon  him,  for  never  before  had 
she  seen  so  handsome  a  man,  nor  a  man  with  a 
white  skin. 

Thus  was  the  prayer  of  Francisco  Casca 
answered,  and  thus  was  he  miraculoush^  saved 
from  perishing  like  a  beast  in  the  desert. 

Francisco  Casca  was  a  virile  man  of  great 
endurance,  and  his  strength  soon  returned  to 
him  after  he  had  partaken  of  the  water  and 
berries  given  him  by  Lo-Eetah.  His  hunger  and 
thirst  satisfied,  he  made  a  critical  examination 
of  his  strange  companion.  She  did  not  grow 
restive  under  his  scrutiny,  for  she  \vas  also  ex- 
amining him.  He  saw  before  him  a  comely,  well- 
formed  maid,  with  rounded  figure,  jet-black 
hair  and  soft,  dark  eyes.  A  necklace  of  silver 
and  turquoise  was  about  her  neck,  silver  rings 
were  on  her  fingers,  silver  circlets  on  her  wrists, 
and  her  kirtle  was  fastened  by  buttons  of  bone 
and  silver.      Over  her  head    she  wore  a  bright- 


76  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

colored  rebosa,  of  native  weaving;  her  body 
v^as  covered  with  a  kirtle,  fastened  at  the  side, 
and  falling  to  her  knees ;  her  feet  were  encased 
in  moccasins ;  her  ankles  were  wound  round 
with  long  strips  of  fine,  white  buckskin,  and  a 
buckskin  belt  was  around  her  waist.  In  her 
hand  she  bore  a  basket  of  willow-ware,  in  which 
she  had  carried  the  berries  she  had  gathered, 
and  by  her  side  lay  the  empty  water-skin,  which 
was  made  from  the  tanned  hide  of  the  buffalo. 

The  maiden  smiled  upon  him,  for  she  Hked 
his  face,  and  w^as  not  afraid,  although  she  did 
not  know  w^hether  he  was  a  human  or  an  im- 
mortal. 

At  the  time  of  Casca's  exile  from  the  com- 
pany, the  conquistadores  had  encountered  none 
but  the  nomad  Indians,  and  when  Casca  saw 
this  maid,  he  thought : 

"This  is  no  Apache  or  brute  Yuma  Indian. 
Surely  I  must  now  be  in  the  land  of  Cibola,  and 
this  must  be  a  daughter  of  that  people." 

**  Maid,"  said  he,  "of  what  people  are  you  ?" 

But  Lo-Eetah  could  not  understand  him, 
and  they  were  forced  to  converse  by  signs.  It 
was  a  difiicult  way  to  communicate  with  each 
other,  but  they  made  shift  to  impart  some  intel- 


HERALD  OF  THE  GREAT  WHITE  CHRIST       77 

ligence;  and  Casca  learned  that  the  maid  be- 
longed to  a  tribe  that  dwelt  but  a  few  hours' 
march  to  the  east,  that  her  people  did  not  like 
unknown  men,  and  that  it  w^ould  not  be  safe 
for  him  to  go  among  them  until  he  could  tell 
them  of  himself. 

Lo-Eetah  then  conducted  her  strange  guest 
to  a  cave  in  the  side  of  the  mesa,  that  was  used 
as  a  shelter  by  hunters  of  her  pueblo.  By  signs 
she  told  him  that  she  would  go  home,  but  with 
the  coming  of  the  sun  on  the  morrow  she 
would  return,  and  bring  food  and  water. 
Casca's  fear  of  the  terrors  of  the  desert  was  so 
great  that  he  was  minded  to  go  with  her,  and 
brave  what  dangers  there  might  be;  but  this 
Lo-Eetah  would  in  no  v^4se  permit. 

When  she  started  away,  the  fear  of  the 
solitude  of  the  wilderness  came  upon  him  again, 
and  he  called  her  back  b^^  shouting.  She  re- 
turned and  stood  mutely  before  him,  as  if  to 
inquire  what  he  might  want.  Again  he  essa^^ed 
to  go  with  her,  but  she  dissuaded  him  b\^  making 
signs,  indicating  that  b^^  so  doing  he  would 
place  his  life  in  danger. 

"  If  this  maid  fails  to  return,"  mused  Casca, 
"then  will  my  life  be  lost  anyhow.     But  I  think 


78  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

she  is  honest,  for  such  e\^es  as  her's  cannot  look 
lies.  She  is  comely,  too ;  and  I  feel  that  I  have 
known  her  alwa^^s." 

Casca  had  been  a  wa^^farer  and  a  wanderer 
for  many  years.  The  pleasures  of  home  and  the 
love  of  women  were  only  memories  with  him, 
and  it  is  not  strange  that  he  fell  in  love  with  the 
child  of  nature  who  came  to  him  so  providen- 
tially in  the  desert.  Acting  upon  a  sudden 
impulse  he  took  the  face  of  the  Indian  girl 
between  his  hands  and  kissed  her.  The  face  of 
Lo-Eetah  lighted  up  with  a  radiant  smile,  she 
breathed  reverently  upon  Casca's  hands,  and 
then  she  turned  and  sped  swiftly  away  across 
the  bare,  brown  mesa. 

Casca  stood  motionless,  watching  her  re- 
ceding figure.  A  smile  was  on  his  face,  and  in 
his  heart  was  a  greater  feeling  of  content  than 
he  had  known  for  many  weary  months.  Lo- 
Eetah  turned  once  and  Avaved  her  hand  to  him, 
and  then  sped  on ;  and  as  she  ran,  never  had 
the  world  seemed  so  fair  to  her, — never  had  life 
seemed  so  sweet  as  since  she  had  met  the  white- 
skinned  wanderer  in  the  sand  valle3'  by  the 
western  mesa. 

A  strange  wooing.     They,  strangers,  people 


HERALD  OF  THE  GREAT  WHITE  CHRIST      79 

of  different  worlds,  stood  in  the  fading  light  of  the 
setting  sun,  and  mutely,  silently  pledged  each 
other  in  love.  They  could  not  speak  to  each 
other  in  the  languages  of  the  tongue,  but  they 
spoke  eloquently  in  the  language  of  the  heart. 

Francisco  Casca  stood  in  the  dim  twilight, 
gazing  after  the  receding  form  of  the  one  who 
was  all  the  world  to  him.  He  was  destitute, 
lost  in  the  forbidding  solitudes  of  a  land  of 
barbarians,  a  wandering  outcast,  exiled  from 
his  people ;  bcA^ond  him  lay  an  unknown  and 
undiscovered  country,  filled  with  he  knew  not 
what  hordes  of  savages  and  what  measure  of 
suffering.  But  the  one  great  hour  of  existence 
had  come  to  him ;  he  had  found  the  soul's  de- 
sire, and  a  love-song  of  Castile  sprang  to  his 
lips   as  he  turned  to  enter  the  cave  to  rest. 

Lo-Eetah  came  with  the  sun  of  the  morning, 
bringing  fresh  w^ater,  meat  of  deer,  and  maize 
cakes  of  her  own  making.  She  kissed  Casca, 
breathed  upon  his  hands,  and  sat  smiling  w^hile 
he  ate.  When  he  had  finished,  she  gave  him  a 
roll  of  tobacco  to  smoke,  and  then  set  about 
the  arduous  task  of  teaching  him  her  language. 
She  pointed  to  herself  and  said  "Lo-Eetah." 
Then   she  pointed  in  turn    to    the  water,   the 


80  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

various  articles  of  food,  the  sW,  the  sun,  and 
every  other  thing  within  sight,  and  as  she 
pointed  to  each  one  she  spoke  the  name  it  Avas 
known  by  in  the  language  of  her  nation.  Casca 
learned  rapidly;  and  thus  they  passed  the  time 
until  the  sun  was  sinking  in  the  west,  and  then 
Lo-Eetah  went  again  to  her  home.  Her  dail}^ 
absence  caused  no  comment  among  her  people, 
for  she  was  a  strange  maid  and  did  as  her  own 
will  bade  her. 

Every  day  she  carried  food  to  the  cave  in 
the  side  of  the  mesa;  each  day  she  spent 
long  hours  in  teaching  Casca  the  speech  of  her 
people ;  and  there  came  a  time  when  he  could 
talk  well  in  the  language  she  had  taught  him. 

"Now,  O  sweet  stranger,"  she  said  to  him 
one  day,  "tell  me  of  yourself  Are  you  an  out- 
cast god,  thrown  down  from  the  sun  to  fall  in 
the  valley  where  I  found  you  ;  or  are  3'ou  a  man 
from  a  nation  of  the  people  of  the  earth?  " 

"No  god  ami,"  said  Casca,  "although  I 
am  an  outcast.  I  am  a  man  of  Spain,  a  great 
land  that  lies  far,  far  to  the  east — far  to  the 
east  of  a  great  water  called  the  ocean." 

"  I  have  heard  tales  of  that  water,"  mused 
Lo-Eetah,    "  and  the  old  men  tell   that  once  our 


HERALD   OF   THE  GREAT   WHITE  CHRIST      SI 

fathers  of  long  ago  dwelt  by  the  noise  of  its 
waves." 

Then  Casca  told  her  of  the  arm^v  of  white 
men  who  w^ere  wandering  somewhere  in  the 
land  of  Cibola,  and  ot  his  exile  from  them. 
Then  he  told  of  the  Christ,  whose  servant  he 
w^as,  of  his  goodness  and  mercy ;  that  he  w^as 
the  ruler  of  the  world  ;  that  he  w^as  the  son  of 
the  one  true  God,  and  that  she,  also,  was  one  of 
his  children.  The  maid  believed,  listening  in  joy 
and  wonder;  for  w^as  it  not  her  lover  who  told 
her  ?  and  must  it  not,  therefore,  be  true  ?  Casca 
took  w^ater  and  baptized  the  maid  in  the  hoh- 
faith,  and  then  together  they  went  across  the 
plains  toward  the  Pueblo  of  the  Strangers. 

When  they  came  near  the  pueblo  they  met 
men  going  to  the  fields  to  labor.  The  men 
took  fright  at  the  strange  white  man,  and  ran 
back  to  the  pueblo  to  sound  the  alarm  and  call 
out  the  chief  priest.  When  Casca  and  Lo-Eetah 
came  to" the  gate  in  the  wall  of  the  pueblo,  old 
Es-tah  came  forth,  bearing  the  symbols  of  his 
ofhce,  to  ask  who  this  man  might  be.  The 
chief's  mind  w^as  troubled  because  the  stranger 
came  w4th  his  daughter,— for  he  feared  witch- 
craft.    He  waved  his  hand  and  called  out : 


82  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

'*  Daughter,  who  is  this  strange  man,  with  a 
white  skin  and  strange  garb,  whom  you  bring 
thus  to  the  pueblo  of  3'our  people  ?  " 

The  crowd  stood  motionless  to  hear,  and 
Lo-Eetah  looked  proudly  from  her  father  to 
Casca  as  she  replied : 

"He  who  comes  with  me,  O,  m3' father,  is 
the  Herald  of  the  Great  White  Christ !  " 

Casca  stepped  forward,  uncovered  his  head, 
and,  speaking  loudh'  so  all  might  hear,  said  : 

"I  am  a  wanderer,  come  from  a  great 
nation  of  white  men  who  dwell  bcA^ond  the  sea. 
I  am  come  to  3'ou  as  the  herald  of  the  und^-ing 
King,  the  white  Christ  of  the  true  believers.  I 
am  come  to  tell  you  that  \'Ou  are  the  children  of 
this  Christ,  and  to  teach  you  the  truth,  which  is 
immutable  and  unchangeable." 

The  chief  priest  and  the  people  wondered 
much  who  this  great  white  Christ  could  be,  and 
the3^  asked  man\'  questions.  And  when  the\' 
learned  that  this  wanderer  declared  that  their 
own  gods  were  false,  and  that  onh'  his  God 
was  true,  man3'  angr^^  murmurs  were  heard, 
and  Casca  was  in  danger.  Then  Lo-Eetah,  see- 
ing his  peril,  stepped  to  his  side,  placed  her  hand 
in  his,  and  said  : 


HERALD   OF  THE  GREAT   WHITE  CHRIST       83 

"Oh,  YOU  people  of  sudden  anger,  hear  me, 
Lo-Eetah,  the  child  of  the  chief  priest !  I  am  to 
be  the  wife  of  this  white-skinned  wanderer,  and 
he  speaks  truth  to  you,  and  I  believe  in  the 
great  Christ  of  whom  he  tells  you." 

Then  turning  to  her  father,  who  stood  mute 
with  w^onder,  she  said  : 

"  Father,  the  stranger  is  weak  and  ill. 
Shelter  him  and  feed  him,  and  tell  the  people 
to  go  to  their  homes,  and  on  another  da3"  they 
can  meet  in  the  open  ground  and  hear  the 
stranger  tell  of  the  new  creed." 

Es-tah  loved  his  daughter,  and  he  did  as  she 
wished.  And  as  the  people  went  toward  their 
homes  they  wondered  much. 

"How  comes  he  to  speak  in  our  speech?" 
asked  one.  "Where  was  he  made  known  to 
Lo-Eetah  ?  "  others  asked  ;  and  some  wondered 
if  he  were  an  immortal,  and  others  questioned  if 
he  had  been  sent  from  the  sk^-  to  be  husband  to 
Lo-Eetah.  So  there  was  much  wonder  in  the 
pueblo,  and  also  much  fear;  for  the  people  liked 
not  the  talk  of  an  unknown  god,  and  they 
feared  the  anger  of  their  own  gods  might  fall 
heavih^  upon  them  because  of  the  presence  of 
this  mvsterious  herald. 


84  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

The  pueblo  Indians  have  been  a  hospitable 
people  in  all  ages,  and  until  it  should  be  fully 
decided  whether  the  wayfarer  were  friend  or 
enemy,  he  would  receive  the  treatment  accorded 
to  an  honored  guest.  The  place  where  Casca 
had  been  stopped,  and  where  he  had  spoken  to 
the  people,  was  just  outside  the  walls  of  the 
pueblo.  As  he  turned  to  lead  his  guest  within 
the  walls,  old  Es-tah's  heart  was  troubled,  for 
he  feared  he  might  be  doing  grievous  wrong  in 
harboring  this  wanderer  from  an  unheard-of 
race,  who  said  so  boldly  that  the  ancient  gods 
of  the  pueblos  were  false  gods.  Never  before  had 
he  seen  a  man  with  a  Avhite  skin,  and  he  feared 
somewhat  that  this  strange  l)eing  might  be 
a  witch  who  had  assumed  the  form  of  a  man 
in  order  to  win  favor  among  the  people,  and 
then  work  evil  upon  them.  But  he  led  the  way 
to  his  own  house,  nor  did  he  speak  a  single 
w^ord.  And  Lo-Eetah  walked  proudly  by  the 
side  of  the  white  stranger  who  was  to  be  her 
husband. 

Casca  looked  wonderingly  about  him  at  the 
strange  houses  of  the  Cibolans.  The  houses 
v^ere  built  of  adobe  and  stone,  were  terraced 
and   all  joined    together,    and    some    of  them 


"  He  led  the  way  to  his  own  house  nor  did  he  speak 


HERALD   OF   THE  GREAT   WHITE  CHRIST      85 

^vere  six  stories  high.  There  were  no  doors  or 
windows  in  the  lower  stories,  and  entrance  was 
gained  by  climbing  ladders  and  then  descending 
through  the  roofs.  On  the  housetops  wild  fruits 
were  drying,  strips  of  meat  were  curing  in  the 
sun,  and  men  and  w^omen  sat  on  the  walls, 
engaged  in  weaving  fabrics,  and  in  molding  and 
decorating  pottery.  The  people  looked  shyly 
at  Casca  as  he  passed,  and  those  w^ho  were 
occupied  ceased  from  their  toil. 

"Surely,"  thought  Casca,  "here  is  rich  soil 
for  the  seed  of  the  word  of  God  ;  for  people  who 
are  weavers  of  fabrics  and  builders  of  tall 
houses  must  be  of  reasoning  minds,  and  with 
such  people  the  mighty  truth  must  prevail." 

Es-tah  led  the  way  up  a  ladder  and  into  a 
large  room,  w^here  some  members  of  his  family 
w^ere  sitting. 

"Leave  me  alone  wHth  the  stranger,"  said 
he.  And  his  people  quietly  went  away,  even 
Lo-Eetah  going  with  them. 

When  they  w^ere  alone  the  priest  examined 
Casca  carefulW,  scrutinizing  his  garments,  and 
even  feeling  of  his  skin  to  make  sure  it  w^as 
not  a  mask.  When  he  had  examined  him  he 
said  : 


86  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

''Now  tell  me  of  3^otirself,  and  of  this  white 
Christ,  whose  herald  yon  say  you  are." 

Casca  told  the  stor^^  of  his  wandering  from 
his  native  land,  of  being  driven  an  exile  from 
the  company  of  the  Spaniards,  and  of  the  love 
for  God  and  the  love  for  his  fellow-men  that 
had  impelled  him  to  journey  across  the  world 
to  spread  the  true  gospel  of  the  hol^^  faith. 

"Will  the  white  Christ,  your  master,  also 
come  to  the  pueblo  of  my  people?"  asked  the 
priest. 

"The  Christ  dwells  in  the  sky,"  replied 
Casca,  devouth'  crossing  himself,  "and  he  jour- 
neys not  upon  the  earth  in  his  visible  person. 
But  his  presence  is  everywhere,  and  he  guards 
his  children  like  a  loving  father,  \vheresoever 
they  may  w^ander."' 

"  Hov7  can  you  prove  this?"  asked  Es-tah. 

"He  saved  me  from  death  in  the  desert.  I 
was  alone  in  a  solitude,  lost  in  a  desolate  land, 
and  he  guided  me  to  safety." 

The  priest  wore  an  earnest  look,  and  he 
bowed  his  head  in  thought.  And  then  Casca 
told  him  all  the  tale  of  the  Christ,  of  his  pil- 
grimage upon  the  earth,  of  his  suffering,  and  of 
his  divine  compassion.     When  he  had  finished 


^<4|^ 


^^^^Hfl&K^    ^Vl^         >-— -- 

ifiv 

ssm 

^SD^*-^if^ 

-y 

/ 

A 

^ 

1 

^^^^^^^^' 

^Mi 

^ 

■HBHj^y   X 

'     N 

I^F  -^ 

•  . 

{ 

Casca  told  him  all  the  tale  of  the  Christ."' 


HERALD  OF  THE  GREAT   WHITE  CHRIST      87 

darkness  was  falling  upon  the  pueblo,  for  he 
loved  his  theme  and  had  spoken  long. 

The  priest  took  Casca's  hand  and  said: 
"  Stranger,  the  tale  you  have  told  is  a  won- 
drous tale,  and  you  might  not  tell  it  to  man^^ 
men  of  my  race  and  live ;  for  the  men  of  my  race 
will  kill  if  they  think  a  man  blaspheme  our 
gods.  I  am  the  chief  priest  of  this  nation. 
Many  long  days  and  nights  have  I  fasted,  seek- 
ing after  the  pure  truth ;  but  I  say  to  you  that 
often  have  I  been  troubled  because  the  truth 
came  not  to  me,  and  I  have  thought  that  there 
must  be  greater  gods  than  those  that  were 
known  to  my  fathers.  I  believe  that  you 
have  spoken  in  true  words,  for  there  is  no 
doubt  in  your  mind.  And,  too,  the  wisest 
priests  of  m^^  fathers  knew^  that  a  God  of  Love 
dwelt  in  the  sk^'  and  it  ma^^  be  that  the  old  god 
of  my  people  is  one  with  the  white  Christ  you 
worship.  I  am  an  old  man  and  I  know  much 
wisdom,  but  I  have  known  little  of  this  God  of 
Love.  I  dwell  in  this  remote  pueblo,  and  the 
knowledge  of  this  god  is  secret  knowledge  that 
may  only  be  spoken  to  priests  of  the  highest 
class.  I  am  of  that  class  now,  but  since  I  have 
learned  the  greatest  of  the  mysteries  there  has 


88  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

been  no  other  priest  near  to  teach  me  of  this 
god.  Now  I  will  retire  to  a  place  apart  and  will 
meditate,  and  if  in  my  wisdom  I  find  that  3'our 
speech  is  truth,  I  will  go  with  you  among  my 
people  to  teach  them  of  this  unknown  Christ." 

Es-tah  gathered  his  robes  about  him  and  re- 
tired to  a  secret  room,  and  for  four  da^^s  he  was 
not  seen  again.  After  he  had  gone  the  women 
placed  food  before  Casca,  and  conducted  them- 
selves as  though  he  were  the  master  of  the 
house  and  the3'^  his  servants. 

"Oh,  haughty  Coronado,"  said  Casca  in  his 
native  tongue,  "  ride  on  in  3'our  ruthless  march 
of  rapine !  I  will  abide  among  the  simple  people 
of  this  isolated  place  and  teach  them  of  the 
Christ,  the  Holy  Virgin  and  the  saints.  I  will 
teach  them,  too,  that  love  of  man  which  is  the 
foundation  for  the  love  of  God.  My  name  will 
be  forgotten  and  3'ours  will  emblazon  the  pages 
of  history,  but  in  the  blest  book  of  life  the  name 
of  the  lowly  exile  shall  lead  that  of  the  haughty 
conqueror." 

For  four  days  Casca  lived  a  quiet  life,  going 
among  the  people  of  the  pueblo,  talking  to  them 
in  their  own  language,  learning  of  their  ways  of 
life  and  their  channels  of  thought. 


HERALD  OF   THE  GREAT   WHITE  CHRIST       89 

On  the  morning  of  the  fifth  day  old  Es-tah 
came  forth  from  his  fast  with  a  happy  look 
upon  his  face.  He  told  Casca  that  during  his 
fast  a  vision  had  been  revealed  to  him,  that 
the  gates  of  the  white  man's  heaven  had  been 
opened  to  the  e^^es  of  his  soul,  and  that  he  knew 
the  creed  of  the  white  Christ  to  be  the  one  true 
creed. 

Then  Casca  and  the  old  priest  went  among 
the  people  preaching  the  creed'  of  the  Christ. 
Some  of  the  people  were  affrighted,  some  were 
troubled,  some  received  the  missionaries  with 
dark  looks  of  scorn,  3^et  manv  believed  and  were 
baptized.  The  doubting  ones  demanded  proof, 
and  as  reason  would  not  suffice,  Casca  took  his 
gun  and  killed  a  wolf  that  was  running  on  the 
mesa  a  long  distance  away.  He  believed  he 
might  be  forgiven  for  deceiving  men  into  believ- 
ing the  truth.  And  the  people  marvelled  much, 
and  said : 

'*  This  man  takes  into  his  hands  a  stick,  and 
lo,it  sends  fire  to  a  great  distance  and  kills  with 
a  noise !  Surely  he  is  the  servant  of  a  god,  and 
the  ^^ords  he  speaks  to  us  must  be  true  words." 

Yet  the  habit  of  the  old  worship  was  strong 
upon  them,  and  it  was  many  3^ears  before  the 


90  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

last  one  laid  down  the  belief  in  the  gods  of  his 
fathers  and  called  himself  a  child  of  the  new 
Christ.  Some  of  the  old  men  even  died  in  the 
old  worship.  But  Casca  was  yet  a  young  man 
when  all  the  people  of  that  nation  held  the  cross 
as  the  emblem  of  their  faith. 

The  oaths  of  the  priesthood  were  taken  by 
an  Indian,  and  Casca  was  wedded  to  Lo-Eetah 
in  the  form  prescribed  by  the  church. 

The  conquistad ores  never  came  to  the  Pueblo 
of  the  Strangers,  and  no  man  of  Spanish  blood 
ever  knew  the  fate  of  Francisco  Casca. 

In  after  years  the  yoke  of  slavery  was  placed 
upon  the  Pueblo  tribes.  These  people  rose  in 
revolt ;  bloody  battles  were  fought  and  the  w^ar 
was  carried  even  to  the  isolated  place  where 
stood  the  Pueblo  of  the  Strangers.  Casca,  Lo- 
Eetah  his  Avife,  and  Estah  the  priest,  had  gone, 
long  before,  to  the  land  beyond  the  sunrise  ;  but 
their  descendants,  and  all  the  people  of  the 
pueblo, fought  against  the  enslavers,  whom  the3' 
called  false  Christians  because  of  their  cruelty. 
The  people  of  this  pueblo  were  few  in  numbers, 
and  in  a  fierce  battle  they,  men,  women  and 
children,  w^ere  swept  from  the  earth,  and  their 
homes  became  the  hiding  places  of  wild  beasts. 


HERALD  OF  THE  GREAT  WHITE  CHRIST       91 

Years,  decades  and  centuries  have  rolled  by ; 
the  war  of  the  Pueblos  is  long  past ;  the  A^oke 
of  slavery  is  an  almost  forgotten  thing,  and  the 
land  that  once  was  Cibola  is  filling  with  hordes 
of  white-faced  people  from  the  East.  The  Pueblo 
of  the  Strangers  has  returned  to  dust,  its  for- 
gotten people  have  no  records  in  the  history 
known  to  the  new  dwellers  in  the  land;  and, 
but  for  a  record  cut  in  und^^ng  rock,  they,  and 
the  herald  who  went  to  them  with  tidings  of 
the  white  Christ,  would  be  known  of  no  more 
upon  the  earth. 

High  up  on  the  side  of  a  frowning  cliff  in  the 
Grand  Canon  of  the  Rio  Colorado,  there  are 
w^ords,  chiseled  in  the  face  of  the  solid  rock. 
The  words  are  in  the  Spanish  language,  and 
if  they  are  translated  they  will  be  found  to  read 
thus : 

"  I  have  reached  the  sundown  time  of  life; 
my  da\^s  to  live  are  few,  and  this  record  cut 
in  living  stone  will  be  the  last  work  I  shall  do 
upon  the  earth.  I  am  a  Christian  and  a  man  of 
Spain,  and  my  name  is  Francisco  Casca.  My 
wife  is  dead  and  my  life  is  lonely,  yet  have  my 
years  been  happy  years,  for  in  this  stranger-land 
I  have  learned  the  fullness  of  the  knowledge  that 


92     HERALD  OF   THE  GREAT   WHITE  CHRIST. 

God  is  everywhere,  and  that  His  love  is  a  love 
that  passeth  all  understanding.  This  is  my  last 
work  before  I  die,  and  here  I  write  down  the 

true  account " 

What  need  to  read  it  further?  For  what 
was  chiseled  upon  the  rock  is  the  same  as  the 
tale  that  is  written  here. 


THE  LAST  MAN  OF  A  NATION 


I 


The  ^i^an  of  a  /Iation 


AM  an  old  man,  and  my  blood 
flows  slowh^  and  m}^  limbs  are 
weary  with  the  w^eariness  of  age. 
The  bones  of  my  people  lie  crumb- 
ling in  the  dust,  and  I,  the  lastman 
of  the  people  of  this  pueblo,  am  w^aiting  here 
alone  until  the  time  shall  come  w^hen  I  shall  be 
called  to  join  my  people  in  the  houses  of  our 
Fathers  in  the  sun.  When  I  die  the  sacred  fires  in 
the  estufa  will  die,  and  the  people  of  the  Pueblo 
of  the  Exiles  will  be  no  more  upon  the  face  of 
the  earth,  for  I  am  the  last  man  of  my  nation. 

When  the  noise  of  your  footsteps  first  broke 
the  silence  of  this  pueblo,  I  loved  you  not, 
for  you  are  a  white-skinned  man  and  are  of 
the  race  who  live  in  the  North,  and  seek  after 
new  things.  But  my  heart  has  been  lonely 
here  among  the  crumbling  houses  of  my 
vanished  people,  and   you  have  been  good  to 

95 


96  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

rae,  an  old  man  and  a  stranger  to  you.  So 
I  call  you  my  friend,  and  I  will  tell  you  of 
the  people  of  the  Pueblo  of  the  Exiles.  When 
I  have  told  you,  then  take  your  sticks  and 
papers  that  talk,  and  go  to  your  own  people; 
for  the  weakness  of  death  is  stealing  through 
my  veins  and  in  his  last  days  it  is  not  good 
that  a  Priest  of  the  Sun  should  be  with  a  man 
of  another  blood.  And,  moreover,  I  care  not, 
henceforth,  to  look  upon  the  face  of  my  fellow- 
men.  I  have  been  alone  in  my  sad  and  bitter 
old  age  until  I  have  a  desire  for  loneliness.  I  will 
lay  me  down  to  die  where  none  shall  see  me. 

1  was  born  in  this  pueblo,  in  this  house,  and 
in  this  very  room  where  I  hold  speech  with  you. 
That  was  more  than  eighty  years  in  the  past, 
and  even  then  my  nation  numbered  but  a  very 
few.  My  birth  was  hailed  with  great  joy,  and 
a  feast  and  a  great  dance  were  given ;  for  the 
blood  that  flowed  in  my  veins  was  the  blood 
of  priests,  and  I  was  entitled  to  become  a 
Priest  of  the  Bow,  which  was  the  highest  of 
the  orders  of  the  priesthood  among  the  people. 
All  my  life  I  have  been  a  priest  and  a  chief, 
and  have  followed  the  wisdom  that  was  passed 
down  from  the  Fathers. 


THE  LAST  MAN  OF  A  NATION.  97 

In  the  far  time  of  the  past  the  forefathers  of 
my  nation  belonged  to  one  of  the  greatest 
nations  of  all  the  Pueblo  Indians,  and  the  old 
tales  tell  that  at  first  they  came  to  this  land 
from  a  rich  land  that  lies  far  toward  the  great 
ocean  of  the  rising  sun.  After  the  nation  had 
builded  a  great  pueblo,  and  had  lived  long  in 
the  land  that  lies  not  far  to  the  east  from  here, 
there  was  born  to  a  woman  of  our  clan  a 
female  child  of  wondrous  beauty.  Her  beauty 
was  greater  than  had  ever  been  seen  by  my 
people  before,  and  the  medicine  chiefs  blessed 
her  and  said  she  was  a  child  who  was  dear  to 
Those  Above.  In  her  ways  she  was  also  beauti- 
ful, and  she  had  a  knowledge  and  a  wisdom 
beyond  her  years. 

She  was  named  La-Lah-Koitza,  and  when 
she  had  grown  from  a  child  to  be  a  woman,  her 
great  beauty  had  grown  also  until  it  v^^as  like 
the  beauty-  of  the  sun ;  and  the  priests  and  the 
chiefs  of  the  clans  sought  her  for  a  wife,  and 
they  stayed  near  her  to  see  her  and  to  hear  her 
speech.  For  love  of  her  the  men  forsook  the 
work  in  the  fields,  and  some  of  the  priests  almost 
forgot  the  worship  in  the  estufas  ;  and  because 
of  this  the  wise  ones   among  the  old  men  were 


98  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

grieved,  for  they  knew  that  the  love  of  her  was 
already  beginning  to  cause  men  to  hate  their 
brothers,  and  they  feared  that  when  she  made 
her  choice  of  a  husband  there  would  be  such 
hatred  among  the  other  men  of  the  tribe  that 
murder  might  be  done. 

The  maid  was  wise,  and  to  hold  peace  in  the 
nation  she  at  first  held  aloof  from  all  men,  until 
it  seemed  that  she  would  be  the  wife  of  no  man. 
The  old  men  were  also  grieved  by  this,  for  a 
woman  should  be  a  wife,  and  they  could  not 
judge  whether  it  were  best  for  the  maid  to  wed 
or  not.  But  the  heart  of  the  maid  decided, — for 
her  heart  \vas  as  the  heart  of  all  maids,  w^hether 
their  skin  be  dark  or  white, — and  in  time  it 
turned  in  love  to  a  man. 

The  man  she  loved  was  a  man  of  no  renown. 
He  belonged  to  a  clan  of  poor  people,  and  he 
never  gave  her  presents  as  the  others  did ;  but 
he  was  dear  to  her,  and  she  became  his  wife. 
When  she  was  wed  the  young  chiefs  who  had 
sought  her  sulked  in  silence  and  with  dark 
faces.  One  great  chief  who  had  sought  her  de- 
clared revenge  upon  her  and  upon  the  man  who 
had  taken  her  for  wife,  and  he  said  that  La-Lah- 
Koitza,  the  beautiful  woman,  was  a  witch. 


THE  LAST  MAN  OF  A   NATION  99 

Then  it  came  about  that  the  waters  in  the 
pools  became  defiled,  and  the  maize  plants  in 
the  fields  were  pulled  up  by  the  roots  in  the  time 
of  night  ;  and  the  angry  chief  said  it  w^as  the 
work  of  La-Lah-Koitza,  the  beautiful  w4tch. 
But  the  man  who  said  it,  although  he  was  a 
chief  and  a  priest,  was  a  liar ;  and  if  he  had 
been  even  a  god,  instead  of  a  priest,  I  would  say 
he  was  a  liar,  for  he  did  the  things  himself,  so 
that  he  might  call  La-Lah-Koitza  a  witch  and 
work  his  hatred  upon  her. 

Then  the  times  of  the  pueblo  were  full  of 
trouble  and  the  old  men  prayed  daily  in  the 
estufas.  Many  of  the  people  thought  the 
beautiful  woman  not  a  witch,  but  a  good 
woman  ;  and  because  of  these  things  it  seemed 
that  war  would  come  among  the  people  of  the 
pueblo,  and  a  war  among  the  men  of  one  people 
is  not  good  in  the  sight  of  Those  Above.  Many 
angry  w^ords  were  spoken  of  this  matter,  but 
the  wncked  men  had  their  way.  The  terrible 
dance  of  the  great-knife  was  ordered,  and  La- 
Lah-Koitza  was  doomed  to  die  the  awful  death 
that  the  laws  and  customs  of  our  fathers  bid  us 
inflict  upon  her  w^ho  was  found  to  be  a  w4tch. 

The  men  of  the  tribe  of  the  beautiful  woman 


100  TALES  OF  THE  SCX-LAXD 

were  mad  with  anger  and  sorrow,  and  they 
made  ready  to  make  war  for  her  ;  bnt  La-Lah- 
Koitza  w^as  a  wise  woman,  and  she  knew  that 
st^ch  a  war  was  not  good.  So  she  called  the 
clan  to  meet  in  a  desert  place  in  the  dead  time 
of  the  night,  and  she  spoke  to  them  and  said  it 
would  be  good  to  go  away  to  a  far  land  and 
build  a  new  pueblo ;  there  to  live  in  peace,  and 
inake  no  war  upon  the  other  clans  of  their  own 
nation.  Her  beaut^^  was  so  great  that  the  men 
w^ere  charmed  by  it,  and  the^^  listened  to  her 
words.  The  anger  left  their  hearts,  the  dark- 
ness went  from  their  faces,  and  they  said  her 
words  were  wise  words.  And  thus  it  was, 
that,  though  \vomen  have  often  in  times  past 
been  the  cause  of  stirring  men  up  to  war,  this 
young  woman  of  my  ancestors  did  by  her  good 
counsel  turn  away  her  brethren  from  shedding 
the  blood  of  their  kinsmen  in  battle. 

So  they  gathered  their  people  about  them, 
and  took  meal,  and  maize,  and  seeds,  and  the 
things  the^^  would  need  in  their  work ;  and  in 
silence  all  of  that  clan  stole  out  of  the  pueblo  in 
the  darkest  time  of  the  night.  They  wandered 
for  many  weary  days,  and  suffered  much  from 
cold,  and  from  hunger,  and  from  thirst;   they 


THE  LAST  MAN  OF  A   NATION  101 

were  always  in  great  fear  that  the  wild 
Apaches  would  fall  upon  them,  kill  the  men, 
and  take  the  Avomen  and  children  for  slaves. 
But  they  were  guided  by  Him  who  holds 
the  lines  of  our  lives,  and  in  time  they  came 
to  a  pass  in  the  mountains  through  which 
it  seemed  men  could  not  go,  unless  they  had 
wings  wherewith  the3'  might  fl\'  over  the  great 
and  terrible  crags  and  precipices  that  were  on 
either  hand,  and  in  front. 

But  these  people  were  exiles  and  dared  not 
turn  back ;  for  behind  them  were  the  angry  men 
of  their  own  nation,  as  well  as  the  w^ild  bands 
of  the  Apaches,  and  with  strength  that  w^as 
given  them  b^-  fear,  they  came  through  the  pass 
to  this  place.  Because  this  place  w^as  hard 
to  reach  they  felt  safe,  and  they  stopped  and 
built  this  pueblo,  which  the\^  named  the  Pueblo 
of  the  Exiles. 

Here  m_v  people  lived  for  many  generations, 
building  houses  and  estufas,  tilling  the  fields, 
weaving  fabrics,  molding  jars,  joining  each 
other  in  marriage,  rearing  their  children,  and 
worshipping  Those  Above  according  to  the  true 
worship  of  the  Fathers.  But  the  numbers  of  the 
people  did  not  increase,  and  disease  seemed  to 


102  TALES  OF   THE  SUN-LAND 

be  with  the  little  children  as  soon  as  the3^  were 
born  into  the  world.  As  the  time  grew  older 
these  things  grew  worse,  and  the  shamans  were 
greatly  troubled  because  of  them,  for,  in  all 
things  save  health,  Those  Above  seemed  good 
to  them. 

When  I  was  a  young  man,  a  priest  of  the 
Spanish  nation  came  to  our  pueblo,  telling  of 
the  great  w^hite  God  of  his  people,  and  asking 
us  to  leave  the  worship  of  the  gods  of  the  sun. 
I  liked  not  his  worship,  but  I  knew  him  for  a 
wise  man,  and  I  asked  him  what  plague  w^as 
upon  my  people  that  the  little  children  died 
and  that  the  men  and  women  knew  not  health  ? 
He  said  w^e  married  in  the  circles  of  blood  that 
were  too  near  the  blood  of  our  own  bodies ;  and 
that  it  w^as  not  good  for  people  of  one  blood 
and  one  famih-  to  marry  so  often  with  each 
other. 

I  knew^  not  if  he  spoke  truth,  but  my  own 
v^ife  was  the  daughter  of  the  brother  of  m3" 
father ;  and,  in  latter  3^ears,  when  our  tribe  had 
faded  to  a  handful  of  people,  my  son  took  my 
daughter,  his  sister,  for  his  wife.  But  one  child 
was  born  to  my  son  and  daughter,  and  that 
child  had  white  hair  and  w^hite  eyes,  and  knew 


I  am  left  here  alone  with  my  sacred  fire.  ' 


THE  LAST  MAN  OF  A  NATION  103 

not  as  mticli  as  the  w41d  beasts  of  the  moun- 
tains. When  this  child  was  born,  I  knew  that 
the  white  priest  had  spoken  in  true  words, — 
and  that  it  was  not  good  to  mix  one  blood  too 
often  with  itself  in  marriage. 

This  mixing  of  one  blood  has  taken  my 
nation  from  the  earth,  but  to  this  day  I  am 
troubled  of  the  matter ;  for  the  wisdom  that  has 
come  down  from  our  fathers  says  that  we  must 
marry,  but  that  we  must  not  take  our  wives 
from  the  women  of  other  people.  Our  tribe 
was  grown  so  small  that  m^^  daughter  was  the 
only  woman  my  son  could  take  for  wife,  unless 
he  took  a  w41d  woman  of  the  Apaches,  and  I 
would  have  killed  him  with  my  own  hand  if  he 
had  brought  such  a  woman  to  live  in  the  pueblo 
that  was  built  b^^  the  fathers  of  my  people. 

In  this  way  my  people,  already  few,  sickened 
and  died.  The  little  children  died  before  they 
grew,  and  the  older  people  died, one  b^^  one,  until 
all  were  gone  but  me ;  and  my  old  wife  ^was  the 
last  one  in  this  pueblo  to  close  her  eyes  in  the 
sleep  of  death.  My  heart  was  very  sad  when 
she  was  gone,  for  I  Avas  left  a  solitary  man  in 
the  land  of  my  fathers,  the  last  man  of  a  van- 
ished nation,  and  there  was  no  more  joy  for  me 


104  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAXD 

in  living.  She  Avas  my  wife  when  the  hot  blood 
of  youth  leaped  through  my  veins ;  she  was 
my  wife  in  the  wisdom  of  my  manhood;  she 
was  my  wife  in  the  sorrow  and  bitterness  of  my 
old  age, — and  the  saddest  day  I  have  known 
in  my  life  was  the  day  her  hand  grew  cold  in 
mine,  and  the  light  of  life  faded  from  her  eyes. 
It  w^as  ten  3^ears  in  the  past  that  I  laid  her 
body  in  the  dust,  and  every  day  since  then  I 
have  prayed  our  greatest  gods  to  free  me  from 
my  burden  of  life  and  let  me  join  her  and  my 
children  and  my  people  in  the  houses  of  our 
Fathers  in  the  sun. 

And  now  j^ou  know  the  stor^^  of  the  Pueblo 
of  the  Exiles;  you  know  that  I,  a  sad  old 
man,  weary  of  life,  am  left  here  alone  with  my 
sacred  fire,  in  this  crumbling  old  pueblo,  that 
you  tell  me  was  thought  to  be  deserted  b}"  men 
until  that  day  w^hen  3^ou  came  upon  me  as  I 
was  praying  in  the  estufa.  Had  not  my  ears 
waxed  dull  with  age,  so  that  I  heard  not  your 
footsteps  as  you  drew  near,  I  would  have 
hidden  myself  away  from  you,  for  I  had  not 
thought  to  look  again  upon  the  face  of  any 
man. 

You  are  the  last  man  I  shall  look  upon  in 


THE  LAST  MAN  OF  A   NATION 


105 


life,  for  when  you  are  gone  never  again  ^11  I 
come  forth  from  the  secret  place  of  the  fire  that 
is  hidden  behind  the  estufa ;  and  if  strange  men 
come  to  this  silent  place  they  will  not  know 
that  a  living  man  is  in  it. 

You  are  a  white-faced  man  and  you  are  a 
heathen,  but  the  sight  of  you  has  cheered  the 
loneh'  heart  of  a  sad  old  man,  and  when  I 
pray  to  Those  Above  I  will  pray  that  the  sun- 
light of  your  life  may  not  be  darkened  by  clouds. 
Now  go  your  way,  for  I  would  be  alone  with 
the  memories  of  my  dead.     Farewell. 


IN  THE  CAVERNS  OF  ULO 


NEhot  day  in  September  I  journeyed 
down  the  sandy  valley  of  the  Rio 
Grande  del  Norte.  I  was  taking 
a  vacation,  seeking  rest  and  such 
adventure  as  might  be  found  b^^ 
wandering  in  the  quaint  land  of  the  old  South- 
west. I  had  started  from  an  old  Indian  pueblo 
on  a  slow  freight  train.  We  saw  Oriental-looking 
Indian  women  w4th  w^ater  jars  on  their  heads, 
walking  from  the  acequias  to  their  queer  grout 
houses ;  oriental-looking  Mexican  villages  Avith 
their  clusters  of  adobe  houses  and  the  inevitable 
adobe  church ;  and  herds  of  sheep  in  charge  of 
solitary  herdsmen.  Away  in  the  distance  the 
blue  line  of  the  Sandia  mountains  rose  between 
us  and  the  horizon,  and  at  sundown  the  slow 
train  pulled  into  the  town  of  San  Marcial.  The 
conductor  said  the  train  w^ould  go  no  farther 
as  that  was  the  end  of  the  division. 


110  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

San  Marcial  is  a  pleasant  town  to  a  leisure- 
ly traveler.  There  is  a  good  railroad  hotel  there 
whose  attaches  take  an  interest  in  the  strangers 
within  their  gates,  and  whose  guests  are  usually 
sociable  and  companionable.  There  are  wide 
verandas  around  the  hotel,  and  the  streets  of  the 
little  town  are  lined  with  shady  trees.  At  night 
Mescalero  Indians  wrap  themselves  in  their 
blankets  and  lie  down  on  the  ground  near  the 
hotel  to  sleep. 

I  was  sitting  on  the  hotel  veranda,  smoking 
acigar,  and  watching  the  big  yellow  moon  come 
up  over  the  mesas,  when  an  old  Mescalero, 
wrapped  in  a  gaudy  Navajo  blanket,  came  up 
to  the  veranda  and  looked  at  me  curiously.  I 
gaA^e  him  a  cigar  and  tried  to  talk  to  him. 
While  thus  engaged,  a  well-dressed  Mexican  of 
the  better  class  took  a  seat  at  my  side  and  said: 
'' Buenas  tardes,  Senor !  " 

The  Mexican  was  a  genial,  intelligent  man, 
apparently  about  thirt\'-five  years  of  age.  He 
was  anxious  to  be  sociable,  and,  like  all  Mexi- 
cans, was  ver3^  polite,  but  a  perpetual  sadness 
seemed  to  lurk  under  his  smiles.  We  talked  for 
an  hour  of  Mexico,  of  the  Indians,  of  the  South- 
west, and  of  the    Garza  revolution,  until  we 


IN  THE  CAVERNS  OF  ULO  111 

came  to  know  each  other  as  well  as  men  often 
do  after  3'ears  of  acquamtance.  When  the  hotel 
guests  had  retired,  and  we  were  sitting  alone, 
looking  out  into  the  moonlit  night,  he  asked  me 
if  I  would  like  to  hear  a  strange,  true  tale  of 
an  adventure  he  had  had.  Of  course  I  wanted 
to  hear  it.  Many  of  the  strange  tales  of  the 
Southwest  are  true,  and  many  are  false,  and  it 
is  hard  for  one  to  choose  between  them ;  but 
the  story  told  me  b\'  the  Mexican  is  here  re- 
corded in  the  man's  own  words. 

''The  Senor  has  no  doubt  read  something  of 
the  history  of  this  country,  and  of  the  country 
of  old  Mexico,  whose  history  is  much  the  same, 
or  was  much  the  same  until  the  present  century. 
He  knows  of  the  traditions  of  the  olden  times 
that  tell  that  the  first  people  of  this  land  came 
down  to  earth  by  wa3'  of  the  mighty-  mountain 
that  is  now  called  Pike's  Peak — the  mountain 
in  whose  shadow  the  Senor  says  he  lives.  Of 
course  that  tale  of  the  people  coming  to  earth 
in  that  way  is  a  fable,  but  it  is  true  that  the 
first  tribes  who  entered  the  great  valley  of 
Mexico  came  from  the  North.  First  came  fierce 
tribes  who  knew  but  little  more  than  the  wild 
beasts,  then  wiser  tribes  who  knew  somewhat 


112  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

of  agriculture  and  working  in  metals ;  then 
other  fierce  tribes,  who  fought  the  other  tribes, 
and  so  on,  until  there  was  almost  ceaseless  war 
in  the  valley  that  was  then  known  as  Anahuac. 
In  time  came  the  Olmecs,  those  shadowy  people 
whose  very  history  is  known  only  by  the  dim- 
mest traditions ;  then  the  Toltecs,  who  either 
faded  away  or  were  amalgamated  with  suc- 
ceeding races ;  then  came  the  great  empire  of 
the  Montezumas,  and  then  the  great  Conquest, 
and  the  sway  of  the  white-skinned  men.  The 
tale  I  shall  tell  you  is  a  tale  of  the  present,  but 
it  also  goes  back,  far  before  the  time  of  the 
Conquistadores,  or  even  the  time  of  the  Aztec 
supremacy.  It  is  a  strange  tale  and  by  many 
will  be  called  a  lie,  but  I  say  to  you.  Sen  or, 
that  it  is  a  true  tale,  and  it  tells  almost  all  of 
sorrow  or  of  joj-  that  has  been  in  my  life. 

*' As  you  see,  I  am  a  Mexican.  Of  Mexicans 
there  are  many  kinds :  the  Castilians,  the  peons, 
the  pure-blooded  Indians.  I  am  a  mestizo — a 
Creole,  3^ou  might  call  it.  In  my  blood  are 
strains  of  the  purest  Castilian  Spanish,  and 
also  strains  of  Indian  blood.  When  the  Con- 
quistadores came,  many  of  them  took  wives 
from  the  native  women.      My  first  male  Castil- 


IN  THE  CAVERXS  OF  ULO  113 

ian  ancestor  did  this,  taking  his  wife  from  a 
small  tribe  knowm  as  the  Ulo,  of  whom  there 
were  not  two  hundred  all  told,  and  of  whose 
descendants  I  am  the  only  one,  except  the 
people  of  whom  I  shall  tell  you.  In  this  way 
the  blood  of  my  ancestors  became  mixed,  and 
it  was  mixed  often  after  that,  by  marriage. 
My  mother  seemed  more  Indian  than  Castilian, 
for  while  she  was  a  devout  Catholic,  she  prac- 
ticed old  Ulo  tribal  rights  in  secret.  M\^  father 
was  a  wise  man  for  the  place  where  he  lived ; 
he  saw  to  it  that  I  was  started  in  the  way  of 
being  educated,  and  then  he  died.  My  mother 
died  soon  after  m^^  father,  and  when  she  lay  on 
her  bed  of  death  she  sent  for  me  and  said  to  me: 
"  '  My  son,  3^ou  ma3^  live  to  be  an  honored 
man  among  the  people  of  this  country.  And  you 
should,  for  there  was  a  time  when  the  Ulos, 
who  are  3'our  ancestors,  were  counted  among 
the  rulers  of  this  great  valle3^,  and  they  held 
sway  over  tribes  far  more  numerous  than 
their  own.  The  old  words  that  have  come 
down  to  me  from  m^^  mother,  and  from  my 
mother's  mother,  and  from  all  the  women  of 
my  line,  tell  that  in  an  olden  time  the  tribe  of 
the  Ulo  came  to  this  valley  from  the  North; 


114  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

came  to  this  valley  and  conquered  it,  although 
the  Ulos  were  but  a  small  tribe.  They  ruled  in 
the  valley  until  the  Toltecs  came,  that  great 
tribe  v^hose  numbers  were  as  the  numbers  of 
the  birds  of  the  air.  The  Toltecs  were  con- 
querers,  and  as  the  Ulos  would  serve  no  mas- 
ters, they  gathered  together  and  sought  out  a 
new  land  far  to  the  southwest  of  this.  All 
did  not  go,  and  the  ones  of  the  Ulos  who  re- 
mained in  the  valley  have  all  faded  from  the 
earth  since  the  time  of  the  Conquest — all  but 
you  and  me,  and  now  you  will  be  the  only  one. 
The  Ulos  are  the  chosen  people  of  Those  Above ; 
they  were  promised  that  on  the  earth  there 
should  always  be  a  land  for  them,  and  that  a 
prophet  should  always  dwell  with  them  to  keep 
them  faithful  to  the  true  creed  of  the  olden  time. 
The  descendants  of  the  tribe  that  left  the  valley 
are  upon  the  earth  to-day;  I  know  not  where, 
but  upon  the  earth  I  know  they  are,  for  so  it 
was  promised.  When  I  was  young,  I  longed  to 
go  forth  and  seek  out  the  dwelling-place  of  this 
tribe  of  my  people,  but  a  woman  is  but  a  weak 
thing;  I  loved  your  father,  and  I  abode  with 
him.  But  because  of  my  longing  to  dwell 
with  my  own  people    I  have  always  cherished 


IX  THE  CAVERNS  OF   ULO  115 

memories   of  them;    I  have    taught    3^ou,    my 

only   child,  the  language  of  this  people,  which 

language    is    now    forgotten    in  the  valley    of 

Anahnac.     And  upon  your  arm  I  have  placed 

the  sacred   mark   of  the  Ulo,  the  writing  that 

reads : 

'' '  In  this  body  Hows  the  blood  of  Ulo.' 

"'Now,  my  son,  when  my  body  has  again 
been  retvirned  to  the  earth,  go  thou  and  seek  the 
descendants  of  3^our  forefathers ;  seek  them  and 
learn  truth  from  them,  and  by  dwelling  among 
them  be  numbered  among  the  chosen  people  of 
the  world.' 

"Then  my  mother  died,  and  I  was  greatly 
impressed  by  what  she  had  told  me.  It  was 
true  that  she  had  taught  me  the  language  of 
the  Ulo,  and  on  my  arm  was  tattooing  that 
read  as  she  had  said.  I  was  a  \^oung  man, eager 
for  adventure,  and  I  desired  greatly  to  find  the 
dwelling  place  of  this  strange  tribe.  I  went  to 
the  schools,  to  the  heads  of  government  depart- 
ments, to  travelers — everywhere  inquiring  for  a 
tribe  known  as  the  Ulo.  Xo  one  knew  anything 
of  such  a  tribe,  but  as  I  believed  the  tribe  ex- 
isted I  traveled  to  the  remote  parts  of  Mexico, 
seeking-  it.     I  did  not  find  anvone,  however,  who 


116  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

had  ever  heard  of  the  tribe,  and  in  time  I  almost 
abandoned  hope  of  ever  finding  it.  My  desire  to 
seek  out  this  people  Avas  founded  only  on  a  de- 
sire for  adventure,  and  not  on  account  of  the 
belief  of  my  mother ;  but  for  all  that,  I  was  very 
loth  to  giA^e  up  m\'  hope  of  discovering  them. 

"After  I  had  ceased  to  look  for  the  Ulos,  I 
became  engaged  as  a  minor  officer  upon  a  small 
ship  that  sailed  from  the  port  of  Mazatlan  up 
and  dow^n  the  west  coast  of  Mexico.  On  one 
cruise  we  passed  a  barren  coast,  where  high  rock 
walls  rose  sheer  at  the  water's  edge,  so  steep 
that  it  seemed  impossible  for  an^-  living  thing  to 
scale  them.  The  place  had  a  charm  for  me  on 
account  of  its  being  a  locality  destined  appar- 
ently never  to  come  under  the  control  of  man. 

"The  wall  of  rock  v  cliffs  ran  for  several  miles 
along  the  coast,  and  it  chanced  that  as  we  were 
passing  it  I  had  a  violent  quarrel  with  m^-  sup- 
erior officer.  In  the  heat  of  anger  I  struck  him 
in  the  face,  knocking  him  senseless.  He  was  a 
vindictive  man,  and  I  knew  that  as  soon  as  we 
reached  a  port  he  would  have  me  arrested  for 
mutiny.  So  I  determined  to  escape,  and  some  of 
the  common  sailors  who  were  friends  of  mine, 
assisted  me.   I  took  a  small  boat,  rigged  it  with 


7A'  THE  CAVERNS  OF  ULO  117 

both  sails  and  oars,  and  provisioned  it.  Taking 
a  few  belongings,  such  as  a  revolver,  photo- 
graphic camera  and  a  supply  of  tobacco,  I 
embarked,  getting  safely  put  off  before  the  officer 
could  prevent.  The  ship  sailed  on  down  the 
coast,  and  before  it  was  out  of  sight  I  saw  the 
officer  I  had  struck  looking  back  at  me  through 
a  glass.  No  doubt  he  was  pleased,  for  it  must 
have  seemed  to  him  that  there  were  chances 
that  I  might  never  reach  a  place  where  I  could 
land. 

*'I  was  A^ery  well  content  in  m3'  small  boat. 
I  always  loved  adventure,  and  I  was  happy  as  I 
sat  in  the  boat  and  smoked,  and  looked  out  over 
the  blue  waves  of  the  calm  Pacific  Ocean.  I  felt 
free  from  all  the  cares  that  beset  men  in  the 
common  w^alks  of  life,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that 
I  should  be  content  to  drift  forever,  alone,  on 
that  beautiful  expanse  of  water  that  seemed  to 
stretch  from  the  world  to  eternity-. 

"As  I  was  near  the  rock  cliffs  that  had 
excited  my  curiosit^^  I  determined  to  sail  as  close 
to  them  as  I  could.  As  I  sailed  along  I  noticed 
an  opening  in  the  cliffs  that  looked  like  the 
mouth  of  a  cave.  I  sailed  to  this  opening,  and 
was  greatly  surprised  to  find  that  it  was  large 


118  TALES  OF  THE  SUX-LAKD 

enough  for  1113^  boat  to  enter.  I  took  the  oars 
and  rowed  directlj^  into  the  mouth  of  this  open- 
ing, and  was  more  surprised  to  find  that  it  led 
under  a  mass  of  overhanging  rock  into  a  perfect 
httle  bay  that  was  completeh-  shut  off  from 
sight  of  the  ocean.  The  bay  was  very  small, 
containing  an  area  of  not  more  than  forty  acres, 
and  the  rock  \valls  rose  sheer  from  it  on  every 
side,  extending  upwards  hundreds  of  feet. 

"I  moored  the  little  boat  to  a  crag  of  rock 
and  prepared  to  spend  the  night  in  the  ba^-. 
The  next  day  I  explored  the  ba3%  and  discovered 
the  mouth  of  the  cave,  or  passage,  that  led  di- 
rectly into  the  rock,  on  the  side  of  the  bay  that 
was  toward  the  mainland.  I  took  candles  with 
me  to  give  light  and  set  out  walking  to  explore 
this  passage.  It  was  wide  enough  for  a  carriage 
to  have  passed  through,  and  was  about  ten  feet 
from  the  floor  to  the  roof  Water  dripped  from 
its  sides,  and  stalactites  and  stalagmites  pro- 
jected from  the  rocks.  The  passage  was  straight 
for  a  long  distance,  when  suddenh'  I  left  the 
straight  path,  and  plunged  into  a  perfect  maze 
of  passages  that  ran  in  ever}-  direction.  It. was 
not  long  until  I  was  completely  lost,  and  I  be- 
came greatly  frightened.      It  is  not  pleasant  for 


\ 


7A'  THE   CAVERNS   OF  ULO  119 

one  to  think  he  may  have  to  wander  alone  in 
tortuous,  underground  passages  until  he  dies 
from  starvation. 

"Has  the  Senor  a  match?  Thank  you;  I 
had  allowed  my  cigar  to  go  out. 

"  I  wandered  up  and  down  the  mazes  of  the 
winding  tunnels  for  long  hours,  probably  cross- 
ing and  recrossing  my  own  path  numbers  of 
times.  When  I  was  almost  exhausted  I  came  to 
a  set  of  rude  stairs  made  out  of  rocks  piled  one 
above  another.  The  stairway  seemed  somewhat 
as  though  it  had  been  built  by  human  hands, 
and  I  wondered  if  som.e  other  man,  lost  and  hope- 
less like  m\^self,  had  built  it  in  order  that  the 
w^ork  might  prevent  him  from  becoming  insane. 
I  climbed  up  the  stairs,  and  found  that  they  led 
to  a  large  platform  that  lay  under  a  part  of  the 
caverns  which  rose  much  higher  than  the  roof  of 
the  passages  I  had  been  in.  A  soft  light  came 
into  this  cavern  from  a  crevice  high  above  my 
head,  and  w^henmy  e\'es  had  become  accustomed 
to  this  light,  I  looked  around  me,  and  the  sight 
that  met  my  e^^es  was  so  strange  that  at  first  I 
almost  feared  I  had  lost  my  reason.  In  all 
parts  of  the  cavern  were  human  figures,  some 
seated,  some  reclining,  some  lying  flat  upon  the 


120  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

floor,  some  standing  by  rocks.  At  first  I 
thought  the^^  were  figures  of  living  humans,  as 
each  was  fully  dressed,  and  all  were  in  such  life- 
like positions ;  but  I  soon  discovered  that  the 
things  before  me  were  the  bodies  of  dead  men. 
I  cannot  tell  you  the  feeling  of  horror  that  ran 
over  me  when  I  found  myself  in  that  ghastly 
company.  Every  figure  seemed  perfect,  none 
seemed  wasted  or  decaj^ed,  all  were  clothed,  and 
over  the  face  of  each  one  was  a  strange  white 
mask  that  closely  fitted  the  face  and  showed  the 
nose,  the  mouth,  in  fact  the  contour  of  all  the 
features.  The  light  that  came  down  through 
the  rift  in  the  rocks  gave  a  weird  effect  to  the 
picture  of  silent  death  that  was  before  me,  and 
the  deathly  silence  that  filled  the  cave  was 
almost  unbearable. 

"I  tried  to  tear  myself  away  from  the  grim 
fascination  of  the  ghastly  cavern,  but  found 
it  hard  to  leave.  Then  I  went  close  to  the 
bodies  and  examined  some  of  them.  I  found 
them  to  be  clothed  in  garments  made  of  buck- 
skin, the  buckskin  having  been  oiled  with  some 
mineral  substance  that  prevented  decay.  The 
bodies  were  mummified,  each  one  being  as  hard 
as  flint,  but  ever3'  contour  and  feature  was  per- 


The  cavern  of  the  dead. 


IN  THE  CAVERNS  OF  ULO  121 

fectly  preserved.  I  tried  to  tear  the  mask  from 
one  of  the  faces,  but  could  not,  as  the  thing 
seemed  made  of  iron.  I  did  succeed,  though,  in 
tearing  open  a  sleeve  covering  one  arm  of  one  of 
the  bodies,  and  when  the  naked  arm  came  in 
view  I  found  tattooed  upon  it  the  same  words 
that  were  tattooed  upon  my  own  arm  when  I 
was  a  baby : 

'  In  this  body  Hows  the  blood  ofUlo  ! ' 

"  I  looked  more  closely.  There  was  no  mis- 
take. The  letters  were  the  old  letters  of  the 
written  language  of  the  Ulo  and  the  words  were 
the  same  my  mother  had  traced  in  ink  in  my 
own  skin. 

"  The  writing  on  the  arm  held  me  chained 
with  a  weird  fascination.  These  mummies,  then, 
were  members  of  the  lost  tribe  of  Ulo,  members 
of  the  same  tribe  to  which  my  ancestors  had 
belonged  so  many  centuries  ago.  The  words  of 
the  prophecy  came  back  to  me,  ringing  in  my 
ears  as  though  spoken  by  a  living  voice.  '  The 
Ulos  are  a  chosen  people,  and  a  prophet  shall 
always  dwell  with  them  to  keep  them  faithful.' 
I  wondered  what  they  had  thought  when  their 
prophecy  had  failed   and  they  had  come  to  die 


122  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

like  reptiles  in  an  underground  cavern.  I  won- 
dered if  the  tribe  of  my  ancestors  had  all  died 
in  this  gruesome  cave,  and  if  the  dead  bodies 
before  me  were  all  that  I  should  ever  find.  That 
could  not  be,  though,  for  the  bodies  before  me 
were  all  the  bodies  of  men.  I  thought  I  might 
find  the  bodies  of  the  women  in  some  other 
cave — might  find  them,  if  I  did  not  die  too  soon. 
I  tore  the  sleeve  off  the  arm  of  another  of  the 
bodies.  There  was  the  same  writing  as  on  the 
first.  Then  I  sat  down  on  a  rock  in  that  dim  cave 
— sat  down  as  a  man  from  whom  all  fear  had 
gone,  and  I  mused  for  hours  upon  the  Ulos,  upon 
myself,  upon  the  chances  of  fortune,  upon  life, 
and  death.  What,  then,  is  a  man?  A  weak 
thing  speeding  swiftly  from  a  mA^sterious  past 
to  a  future  even  more  iTi\'sterious  ;  a  thing  of  a 
few  days ;  a  thing  that  reels  under  the  weight 
of  many  troubles,  a  thing  that  dies  and  decays 
and  returns  to  the  dust  of  the  earth,  and  is 
soon  utterly  forgotten  in  all  places  in  the  world. 
The  Ulos  were  once  a  great  people ;  the\'  ruled 
tribes  whose  numbers  were  multitudes ;  they 
w^ere  so  great  that  every  Ulo  was  called  a  chief; 
and  then  they  went  as  fugitives  to  the  caves  of 
the  mountains, -went  as  fugitives  and  perished, 


IN  THE  CAVERNS   OF   ULO  123 

even  unto  the  last  man.  They  were  a  forgotten 
race ;  their  places  were  filled  with  other  races, 
and  in  time  they  also  would  be  forgotten.  Such 
were  the  thoughts  that  came  to  me  in  the 
cavern  of  the  dead. 

"  I  sat  there  for  hours,  and  then,  almost  ex- 
hausted from  hunger,  I  wearily  climbed  down 
the  stone  ladder  and  began  again  m\^  hopeless 
wanderings  up  and  down  the  winding  stone 
passages.  Just  as  I  was  ready  to  give  up  in 
despair  and  lie  down  and  die,  a  smell  of  salt 
Vv-ater  came  to  my  nostrils,  a  breath  of  sea 
breeze  blew  into  my  face,  and  then  a  few  steps 
brought  me  out  again  to  the  little  bay  where 
my  boat  w^as  moored.  I  ate  of  the  food  I  had 
in  my  boat,  and  then  lay  down  on  the  rocks 
and  slept  for  manA'  hours. 

"When  I  escaped  from  the  caverns  I  thanked 
God  for  my  deliverance  and  vow^ed  that  no 
wealth  upon  the  earth  could  tempt  me  to  again 
risk  my  life  in  the  mazy  passages.  But  when  I 
awoke  from  my  long  sleep  and  was  refreshed 
from  m\'  hunger  and  fatigue,  the  m\'stery  of  the 
place  took  hold  upon  me  again,  and  I  set  about 
devising  a  way  to  safely  explore  the  caverns, 
and   learn,  if  I  could,  something  of  the  secrets 


124  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

that  were  hidden  in  them.  In  my  boat  was  a 
a  great  coil  of  common  fish  line  that  I  had 
hastily  thrown  in  w^hile  making  my  hurried 
preparations  to  escape  from  the  ship.  I  un- 
wound this  line  and  found  that  there  was 
almost  two  miles  of  it.  I  bound  one  end  of 
the  line  securely  to  a  rock,  and  taking  the  coil 
in  my  hands,  again  entered  the  underground 
passage,  allowing  the  line  to  unwind  as  I 
walked.  In  this  wa}-  I  went  on  until  I  came 
to  the  end  of  the  line,  and  I  had  found  nothing. 
I  retraced  m\'  steps  ahnost  back  to  the  mouth 
of  the  cave  and  then  set  out  in  a  different 
passage  from  the  one  I  had  been  in. 

"Just  as  I  was  coming  to  the  end  of  the 
line  again,  I  found  that  the  passage  was  be- 
coming light.  It  was  mereh'  a  glimmer  at  first, 
then  there  came  n  soft  light  that  showed  the 
walls  of  the  caverns,  and  then  a  full,  steady 
light  that  one  might  read  by.  Soon  the  passage 
widened,  and  then  1  came  to  a  large  cave  that 
was  high  and  light,  and  that  was  fitted  up  as 
a  human  habitation.  A  large  couch,  made  of 
skins  and  cotton  cloths,  lay  against  one  side  of 
the  cave,  a  stone  table  and  seat  were  in  the 
centre,   and  various    instruments,   the  uses    of 


IN  THE  CAVERXS  OF   ULO  125 

which  I  did  not  know,  were  scattered  about. 
I  discovered  that  the  light  came  from  the  burn- 
ing of  natural  gas  that  was  blazing  behind 
shields  made  of  isin-glass.  The  farther  end  of 
this  cavern  was  closed  Avith  a  stone  wall  that 
showed  that  it  had  been  made  by  human  hands, 
and  a  stone  door  was  in  this  wall.  Upon  the 
walls  of  the  room  I  was  in  were  carvings, 
and  upon  looking  closely  I  found  some  words 
written,  or  carved,  in  the  language  of  the  Ulos. 
I  blessed  my  mother  for  teaching  me  that  for- 
gotten language,  for  now  it  might  chance  that 
it  would  save  my  life. 

"Weary  from  m^-  long  wandering  in  the 
passages,  I  sat  down  upon  the  couch  to  rest. 
While  sitting  there,  the  stone  door  in  the  wall 
swung  open,  and  slowly  walking  toward  me 
came  a  figure  exactly  like  one  of  the  petrified 
mummies  I  had  found  in  the  burial  cavern.  I 
thought  it  was  a  ghost,  but  I  was  not  fright- 
ened, so  used  was  I  becoming  to  terrible  things. 
The  figure  approached  me,  the  head  bent  down 
as  though  in  thought,  and  I  noticed  that  the 
step  w^as  slow  and  halting  like  that  of  an  old 
man.  Presently  the  man  looked  up,  and  I  saw 
upon  his  face  one  of  the  strange  white  masks  I 


126  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

had  seen  upon  the  mummies.  The  mask  envel- 
oped the  entire  head,  the  part  covering  the  back 
of  the  head  being  smooth,  and  the  part  cover- 
ing the  face  fitting  every  feature  perfecth-.  The 
eifect  of  the  mask  was  ghastly.  There  were 
all  the  features,  the  eyes,  the  mouth,  the  nose; 
but  all  were  of  that  same  dead-white  color. 

''Presently  the  masked  man  saw  me  and 
stopped.  He  did  not  seem  frightened,  as  I 
thought  he  would  be,  but  stood  and  regarded 
me  intently.  Then  he  walked  in  front  of  me, 
made  a  low  bow,  and  said  : 

"'My  son,  from  whence  came  you, — from 
the  sun  ? ' 

"I  answered  that  I  came  from  Mexico, 
and  he  said  that  he  knew  not  that  the  land  of 
endless  life  was  called  Mexico.  Then  I  tried  to 
tell  him  something  of  the  wonderful  country  of 
my  birth,  but  for  some  reason  I  was  slow  in 
making  him  imderstand,  and  I  soon  saw  that 
he  regarded  me  as  a  god  that  had  been  sent  to 
him  from  the  land  of  the  sun. 

"  '  What  came  3'ou  here  to  do  ?  '   he  asked. 

"'I  came  to  seek  the  tribe  of  the  Ulo,'  I 
replied. 

"'I   am  the  king  of  the  Ulo,'   replied   the 


IX  THE  CAVERNS   OF   I'LO  127 

masked  man  ;  '  the  king  and  the  highest  priest 
of  that  nation.  For  many  3'ears  have  I  ruled 
over  them,  given  them  laws,  instructed  them  in 
truth,  and  have  offered  up  their  pra^-ers  to  the 
most  high  gods.  For  many  years  have  I  dwelt 
alone  in  this  cavern ;  alone,  except  for  the 
sacred  snake  of  my  people.  While  other  men  of 
my  tribe  have  taken  wives  and  have  reared 
children,  I  have  dwelt  in  this  solitude,  praying, 
meditating,  and  thinking  thoughts  of  wisdom 
for  m}'  people.  But  the  time  of  my  death  draws 
nigh ;  I  feel  my  blood  turn  cold  ^vithin  m^^  veins, 
and  it  will  not  be  long  until  1  must  take  my 
place  among  the  vanished  kings  in  the  cavern  of 
the  dead.  Do  you  know  of  the  cavern  of  the 
dead,  my  son?  ' 

"I  replied  that  I  did,  and  the  king  seemed 
pleased  that  I  knew  of  it.  Then  the  king 
brought  me  food,  and  a  kind  of  wine  made  from 
some  plant,  and  bade  me  eat  and  rest  before 
talking  further. 

"  When  I  had  rested  and  refreshed  myself,  I 
talked  long  with  the  masked  king,  who  did  not 
seem  surprised  that  I  spoke  the  language  of  the 
Ulo.  I  learned  from  him  that  the  caverns  and 
underground  passages  opened  on  one  side  into 


128  TALES  OF  1  HE  SUN-LAND 

the  sea,  and  on  the  other  side  into  a  valley  that 
was  surrounded  with  high  stone  cliffs.  In  these 
cliffs  the  people  of  the  Ulo  had  cut  their  homes ; 
there  they  lived ;  and  in  the  valley  they  grew 
maize,  and  melons,  and  cotton,  and  various 
things  to  eat.  Beyond  this  valley,  which  was 
called  the  Valley  of  Cultivation,  opened  another, 
called  the  Valley  of  the  Beasts,  and  in  this 
valley  were  deer  and  other  animals  hunted  for 
food  and  skins  by  the  Ulo.  The  king  told  me 
that  there  were  six  hundred  people  in  the  tribe. 
He  told  me,  also,  the  secret  of  the  kingship.  The 
people  of  the  Ulo  believed  that  their  king  Avas 
an  immortal,  and  that  it  was  death  to  look 
upon  his  face.  This  belief  had  its  rise  in  the  fact 
that  the  first  king  who  ruled  them  in  the  hidden 
valleys  devised  the  white  masks  which  made 
one  face  look  like  all  other  faces.  He  had  told 
his  people  that  he  was  an  immortal,  and  would 
live  forever ;  and  when  his  time  came  to  die  he 
sent  for  a  religious  A^outh  from  among  the 
people,  telling  the  people  the  youth  was  to  be 
sacrificed  to  the  sun  ;  but  he  told  the  3^outh  he 
was  chosen  to  rule  the  people.  Then  he  made  a 
w^hite  mask  for  this  3'outh,  and  the  people  knew 
not  the  difference,  for  the  j^outh  was  masked 


IX  THE  CAVERNS  OF   ULO  129 

and  dressed  exacth'  like  the  lirst  king,  and 
besides,  the  king  went  but  Httle  among  his 
people.  The  3'outh  grew  old ;  his  death  grew 
near ;  he  chose  another  youth  to  succeed  him ; 
made  him  a  white  mask,  and  again  the  people 
knew  not  that  a  new  king  was  ruling  them,  but 
thought  that  another  sacrifice  had  been  made 
to  the  sun.  In  this  wise,  innumerable  kings  had 
ruled  over  the  people  of  the  Ulo  ;  yet  the  people 
thought  it  was  one  immortal  who  had  always 
been  their  king.  And  the  masked  dead  bodies  in 
the  cavern  of  death  were  the  bodies  of  the  men 
who  had  been  kings  of  the  Ulo. 

"'My  son,'  said  the  old  king  to  me,  'the 
time  has  almost  come  for  me  to  lay  down 
my  burden  of  years,  and  take  my  place  among 
the  silent  bodies  of  the  kings  who  have  gone 
before  me.  The  people  of  the  Ulo  think  that  but 
one  king  has  ever  ruled  over  them,  and  it  is 
well  that  thcA^  think  that ;  but  you  who  are  to 
be  the  king  must  know  the  truth.  When  I  was 
a  youth  I  was  devout  in  the  practice  of  the 
worship  of  the  gods  of  my  tribe,  so  devout 
that  the  king  often  spoke  to  me  in  commenda- 
tion. Now  the  Ulo,  when  thcA'  dwelt  in  Ana- 
huac,  gave  human  lives  in  sacrifice,  giving  the 


130  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

lives  of  people  the\^  had  captured  in  the  wars 
But  in  this  valley  our  numbers  grew  so  few, 
and  there  were  no  barbarians  to  war  against, 
that  it  was  only  in  long  periods  that  a  human 
life  could  be  spared,  even  in  sacrifice  to  the  gods. 
In  times  that  were  long  apart,  sometimes  fift}^ 
years,  sometimes  seventy,  a  youth  was  chosen 
from  among  the  people  and  sent  to  the  king's 
palace  to  be  sacrificed.  After  being  sent  there 
the  3'outh  was  never  heard  of  again,  and  the 
king  ruled  apparently  as  l^efore — the  one  called 
for  sacrifice  being  really  the  king.  In  my  youth 
the  masked  king  came  to  me  and  told  me  I  was 
chosen  to  be  offered  as  a  sacrifice.  I  did  not 
fear,  for  the  sacrificed  ones  have  high  places  in 
the  land  of  endless  life.  Feasts  were  given, 
many  prayers  were  said,  and  then  I  went  to  the 
palace  of  the  king, — this  same  palace  where  I 
now  hold  speech  \vith  3'ou.  The  king  instructed 
me  much  in  the  wisdom  of  our  nation,  and  then 
he  threw  off  the  white  mask  and  showed  me  he 
was  a  man.  He  told  me  that  his  time  to  die 
had  come;  he  told  me  the  secret  of  the  kingship, 
and  appointed  me  to  be  king  when  he  Avas 
dead.  He  made  a  Avhite  mask  to  cover  iny  face, 
he  taught  me  how  to  embalm  the  dead,  (which 


7A'  THE  CAVERXS  OF  ULO  131 

is  done  with  a  mineral  liquid  that  is  found  in 
one  of  these  caverns),  he  showed  me  the  cavern 
where  I  should  take  him  when  his  life  was 
gone,  and  then  he  sent  me  among  the  people 
to  see  if  i  could  pass  as  king.  I  went 
forth  among  the  people,  and  the^-  fell  down 
and  worshipped  me  and  called  me  king.  For 
I  was  of  the  size  of  the  old  king,  and  m3' 
voice  was  like  his.  Then  the  old  king  showed 
me  the  place  where  the  sacred  snake  is  kept, 
and  then  he  lay  himself  down  and  died,  and  I 
was  the  masked  king  of  the  people  of  the  Ulo. 
That  was  seventy'  years  in  the  past,  and  the 
people  know  not  that  I  have  not  lived  forever. 
Now  my  time  has  come  to  die,  and  I  have  been 
meditating  upon  which  youth  I  shall  call  to  be 
king  after  me.  But  instead  of  having  to  choose 
a  man  to  be  king,  a  man  has  been  sent  to  me 
from  the  sun.  I  have  been  a  hoh-  man  and  a 
wise  prophet  to  m3^  people,  and  in  reward  for 
my  wisdom  3^ou  have  been  sent  to  me,  that 
after  me  you  ma^^  become  the  sacred  king  of 
Ulo.     Hail,  sacred  king  of  the  land  of  Ulo  ! ' 

"I  found  that  the  old  kingw^as  honest  in  the 
belief  that  he  w^as  a  divine  instrument,  and  as 
I  am  a  true  Catholic,  I  wanted  sorely  to  trv  to 


132  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

win  him  to  the  true  faith.  But  he  was  an  old 
man,  the  hand  of  death  was  faUing  upon  him, 
and  I  resolved  to  let  him  die  in  the  happiness 
of  his  own  faith. 

"  For  many  days  the  old  king  instructed  me 
in  the  mysteries  and  rites  of  the  Ulo  worship,  for 
the  Ulo  ruler  was  as  much  priest  as  king.  He 
instructed  me  in  the  histor3^  of  his  people,  he 
taught  me  the  art  of  embalming,  he  told  me 
how  to  choose  my  successor  when  my  days 
were  done,  and  he  told  me  of  the  blood  mark 
that  should  go  upon  the  arm  of  every  Ulo.  He 
then  examined  m}-  own  arm,  and  when  he  found 
the  mark  upon  it  he  had  no  further  doubt  that 
I  had  been  sent  to  him  as  a  miracle.  Then  he 
placed  a  mask  upon  me  and  took  me  to  see  the 
sacred  snake,  telling  me  that  onh^  masked  men 
should  stand  in  the  snake's  presence. 

"  The  snake  was  kept  in  a  great  caA^ern,  one 
half  of  which  was  a  large  pool  of  salt  water 
that  had  evidently  been  carried  in  jars  from  the 
sea,  and  the  other  half  of  which  was  floored 
with  solid  rock.  The  snake  was  an  immense 
thing,  as  spotted  as  a  leopard,  its  length  thirty 
feet,  and  its  body  was  as  thick  as  the  body  of 
a  man.      It  seemed  to  be  a  sea  snake,  and  I 


IX  THE  CAVERNS  OF  ULO  133 

noticed  that  it  stayed  much  of  the  time  in  the 
pool  of  sea  water.  Horny  substances,  denoting 
extreme  age,  were  about  the  snake's  eyes,  and  it 
seemed  to  move  about  but  ver^v  Httle,  although 
I  have  seen  it  when  it  was  as  agile  as  an}^  snake 
could  be.  The  old  king  called  the  snake,  and  it 
^"ent  to  him  and  wound  itself  around  his  bod3\ 
The  sight  sent  chills  over  me,  but  the  snake 
seemed  to  love  the  man,  and  did  not  hurt  him. 
The  old  king  took  me  to  the  snake's  cavern 
many  times,  and  in  time  the  snake  would  come 
to  me  when  called  the  same  as  it  would  to  the 
old  king.  But  I  always  feared  that  snake,  and 
would  fear  it  if  I  should  see  it  now,  although 
it  once  saved  m\'  life.  The  king  instructed  me 
in  the  snake  worship,  but  I  need  not  tell  jou 
of  that,  as  my  tale  is  long  enough  without 
speaking  of  all  the  strange  things  I  learned 
in  the  land  of  Ulo. 

"When  I  had  learned  all  that  the  old  king  had 
to  tell,  he  bade  me  don  a  robe  like  his  and  go 
forth,  masked,  among  the  people,  in  order  that 
I  might  learn  as  much  of  them  as  I  could  before 
he  died.  He  gave  me  many  directions,  and  it 
was  almost  impossible  that  I  should  let  the 
people  learn  the  secret,  or  discover  that  I  was 


134  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

not  the  king  who  had  ruled  over  them  so  long. 
I  passed  through  the  stone  door  hi  the  wall  of 
the  cavern,  passed  through  a  number  of  smaller 
caverns,  and  then  I  went  down  a  stone  stair- 
v^ay  into  the  valley.  I  had  not  seen  the  light 
of  the  sun  for  many  long  days,  and  my  blood 
ran  fast  as  I  saw  the  blue  arch  of  the  beautiful 
sky  once  more.  The  valley  seemed  to  have  been 
hidden  from  the  world  by  nature.  It  was  about 
one  mile  w^ide  and  about  six  miles  long,  and  at 
the  farther  end  was  a  narrow  pass  or  canon 
that  opened  into  the  Valle\^  of  the  Beasts,  a 
place  where  I  never  went.  As  I  went  down  the 
steps  I  saw  the  homes  of  the  Ulos  that  had  been 
cut  out  of  the  solid  rock  of  the  cliffs.  I  saw  men 
and  women  working  in  the  fields,  and  as  I  drew 
near  them,  walking  slowly  as  the  king  had  told 
me  to  do,  they  ceased  from  their  labors  and 
raised  their  arms  in  salute  to  me. 

"'See,  the  king  comes,'  said  one  man,  *  the 
king,  Mrho  has  come  down  into  the  valley  but 
once  since  the  feast  of  the  harvest  of  maize.' 

"'It  ma\"  be  that  he  comes  to  choose  a 
youth  to  be  sacrificed,'  answered  an  old  man. 
'It  is  seventy  years  since  a  sacrifice  has  been 
given,  and  I  doubt  not  the  gods  hunger.' 


7.V  THE  CAVERNS  OF   ULO  135 

"My  voice  was  much  like  that  of  the  old 
king,  and  I  had  schooled  myself  in  imitating 
him,  but  my  knees  trembled  when  I  first  spoke 
to  the  people. 

"  '  My  children,'  said  I,  '  I  have  not  come  to 
choose  a  sacrifice;  the  gods  of  our  people  are 
well  content ;  our  people  are  wise  and  worship- 
ful, and  it  may  please  our  gods  that  no  human 
life  will  ever  again  be  offered  as  a  sacrifice.' 

"The  people  did  not  answer,  but  they  gazed 
at  me  curioush',  and  I  thought  I  saw  a  scowl 
upon  the  face  of  the  old  man  who  had  spoken. 
He  w^as  a  barbarian  in  his  w^orship,  and  the 
thought  of  human  sacrifice  was  dear  to  his 
heart. 

"I  walked  entirely  through  the  valley  of  Ulo, 
drinking  in  every  new  scene,  but  seeming  to 
notice  nothing.  When  I  was  returning  to  the 
palace  in  the  caverns  I  met  a  party  of  A^oung 
girls  going  home  from  the  fields  w^here  they  had 
been  at  w^ork. 

"  The  girls  w^ere  young,  ranging  in  age  from 
twelve  to  sixteen  years,  but  they  would  have 
seemed  much  older  to  any  one  who  lived  in  a 
land  where  w^omen  do  not  develop  so  rapidly  as 
in  that  warm  clime.      Thev  had  soft,  black  eves 


136  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

and  raven  black  hair,  and  were  dressed  inkirtles 
and  skirts  made  of  cotton  cloth.  Upon  their 
heads  they  bore  pottery  jars  filled  with  water 
from  a  spring  in  the  mountain  side. 

*'My  attention  was  immediately  attracted 
to  one  of  the  girls  on  account  of  her  wonderful 
beauty.  Her  features  w^ere  as  finely  chiseled 
as  the  features  of  the  most  patrician  queen, 
her  form  had  the  perfect  proportions  of  a 
statue,  her  black  eyes  were  as  soft  as  the  eyes 
of  a  dove,  and  her  wealth  of  raven-black  hair 
fell  in  silken  masses  to  her  knees.  She  was  not 
brown,  as  man\^  Indians  are,  but  red,  as  are 
many  of  the  women  of  the  Pueblo  tribes.  As 
soon  as  I  saw  her  my  heart  went  out  to  her 
in  love,  and  I  determined  to  win  her  if  such  a 
thing  might  be.  I  did  not  stop  to  consider 
that  the  law^s  forbade  the  masked  king  to  look 
in  love  upon  any  woman,  nor  to  think  of 
the  danger  and  trouble  I  might  bring  upon  the 
maid  and  myself  if  I  sought  to  win  her.  The 
maidens  tripped  merrily  along,  and  I  heard  the 
beautiful  one  called  b\'  the  name  Lo-Zeenah. 
That  name  in  the  Ulo  speech  means  Beautiful 
Star.  The  maidens  saw^  me,  bowed  in  worship, 
and  I  passed  on  m^^  way  to  the  caverns. 


IX  THE  CAVERXS  OF  ULO  137 

"That  same  day  the  old  king  died.  I 
bathed  him  in  the  petrifying  fluid  and  placed 
him  in  the  Cave  of  Death.  Then  I  was  alone 
in  the  cavern  palace.  Alone,  with  no  living 
thing  to  bear  me  company,  no  book  to  read, 
no  work  to  do. 

"The  next  day  after  I  had  walked  in  the 
valley  there  came  to  the  outer  rooms  of  my 
palace  a  deputation  of  the  old  men  of  the 
tribe,  asking  that  I  sit  in  judgment  upon  a 
charge  preferred  by  the  war-chief  against  the 
maid  Lo-Zeenah.  The  Ulos  had  not  been  in 
war  for  centuries  but  they  held  the  tribal 
formation  of  the  olden  time,  and  the  war  chief 
was  one  of  the  great  men  of  the  nation.  The 
present  war-chief  had  craved  Lo-Zeenah  in 
marriage;  her  father  and  mother  had  given 
consent,  but  Lo-Zeenah  herself  had  persistently 
refused.  The  refusal  was  a  breach  of  law. 
Lo-Zeenah  could  be  punished,  even  unto  the 
taking  of  her  life,  and  in  anger  the  war-chief 
had  brought  a  trial  before  the  king.  If  the 
chief  had  known  that  under  the  austere  robes 
of  that  masked  king  there  beat  a  young  heart 
on  fire  with  love  for  the  beautiful  Lo-Zeenah,  I 
think  he  would  not  have  begun  the  trial. 


138  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

"I  consented  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the 
cause  of  the  chief  and  the  maid,  and  they,  and 
nearly  all  the  people  of  the  tribe,  came  before 
me,  just  outside  the  hall  of  my  palace.  The 
angry  chief  came  with  a  dark  brow,  intent 
upon  revenge  for  the  slight  put  upon  him ;  the 
people  came  with  sorrow  written  on  their 
faces,  for  they  all  loved  the  Beautiful  Star;  and 
the  maiden  herself  came  with  a  gentle  presence 
that  won  all  hearts  to  her.  But  the  laws  of 
the  Ulo  were  deemed  inexorable,  and  all 
expected  that  the  king  would  decree  that  she 
should  wed  the  chief  or  lose  her  life  for 
disobedience.  I  knew  there  was  danger  for 
even  the  king  to  go  contrary  to  the  laws,  but  I 
would  have  died  before  inflicting  either  punish- 
ment upon  the  beautiful  girl  that  stood  before 
me.  The  case  was  stated  to  me  while  I  sat  like 
a  carven  statue  upon  my  stone  throne  of 
judgment.    When  all  had  spoken,  I  said  : 

'"People  of  Ulo,  the  laws  of  our  nation 
were  named  by  the  fathers  of  long  ago.  They 
are  just  laws,  and  they  cannot  be  evaded  or 
revoked.  You  all  know  that  in  this  case  the 
maid  should  wed  our  war-chief,  or  that  her  life 
should  be  taken  in  punishment.     Even  I,  3^our 


IN  THE  CAVERXS  OF  ULO  139 

undying  king,  could  not  change  this  law,  unless 
Those  Above  should  bid  me.  I  am  not  sure  of 
their  will,  though,  for  in  a  dream  it  has  lately 
been  revealed  to  me  that  the  people  of  Ulo 
shall  again  become  a  great  people,  of  whom 
every  man  shall  be  called  chief;  they  shall 
again  become  the  rulers  over  man3^  peoples. 
In  that  dream  it  was  showm  to  me  that  a 
woman  of  the  Ulo  shall  be  chosen  by  Those 
Above  to  be  the  mother  of  another  king,  a  king 
who  shall  take  part  of  the  tribe  and  go  forth 
in  strange  places  to  extend  the  swa^^  of  the 
nation.  Those  Above  have  promised  to  send 
me  an  image  of  this  woman  who  shall  be 
chosen  to  become  the  mother  of  a  king,  and 
until  that  image  comes  I  ^hall  pass  no  judg- 
ment upon  any  woman  in  the  land  of  Ulo. 
Therefore  this  cause  shall  be  held  in  abeyance, 
w^aiting  the  pleasure  of  Those  Above,  whose 
chosen  people  the  Ulos  are.  Those  Above  have 
said  that  the  image  shall  be  w^afted  down  from 
the  mouth  of  the  entrance  to  my  palace,  and 
shall  fall  in  the  valley.  Go,  then;  set  men  to 
watch  in  the  valle\"  for  the  image,  and  when  it 
has  fallen,  will  I  decide.  Until  then  Lo-Zeenah 
will  abide  in  the  inner  rooms  of  my  palace.' 


140  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

''The  people  were  greatly  excited  when  I 
had  thus  spoken,  and  all  the  old  men  and  the 
chiefs  murmured  because  I  had  decreed  that 
the  maid  should  remain  in  m^'  palace.  It  was 
against  the  sacred  laws  for  any  woman  to  be 
alone  with  the  king;  and  an  old  priest,  the 
father  of  Lo-Zeenah,  rose  in  his  place  and  said 
his  daughter  should  not  go.  He  said  he  was 
a  true  son  of  Ulo,  a  wise,  a  just,  and  a  hoW 
man,  in  whose  eyes  rebellion  against  the  king 
was  a  wicked  thing;  but  he  loved  the  laws 
and  the  wisdom  of  the  fathers  even  more  than 
he  loved  his  king,  and  he  said  he  would  lose 
his  life  in  battle  with  me  before  the  sanctity-  of 
the  religion  should  be  profaned. 

"  Much  excitement  was  caused  by  the  speech 
of  the  old  priest,  and  the  people  began  taking 
sides,  some  with  m^e,  some  with  the  old  man. 
The  war-chief,  who  desired  to  wed  Lo-Zeenah, 
w^as  a  fierce  man  with  a  dark  face,  and  he  rose 
in  his  place  and  openly  accused  me,  the  king,  of 
being  guilty  of  sin  in  desiring  to  have  a  woman 
in  my  palace,  I  was  afraid  a  rebellion  would 
take  place,  but  I  made  no  sign  of  fear.  I  rose 
in  my  place,  stretched  out  my  hand,  com- 
manded silence,  and  said : 


7.V  THE  CAVERKS  OF  ULO  141 

'''Oh,  thou  fools!  thou  fools,  who  dare 
question  the  wisdom  of  3'our  holy  king !  Know 
you  not  that  I  can  stretch  forth  my  hand  and 
cause  A^ou  all  to  die  ?  ' 

"  The  women  and  some  of  the  men  cowered 
in  their  seats,  but  the  war-chief  and  the  old 
priest  laughed  and  said  that  although  I  w^as  a 
king  the\^  knew  I  could  not  kill.  Again  I  rose 
in  my  seat.  'Go  forth,'  said  I,  'and  bring  to 
me  a  fawn.  And  while  the  hunters  are  gone  for 
the  fawn  let  no  man  speak  nor  leave  his  seat.' 

"  I  knew  I  was  in  danger  but  I  felt  so  sure 
of  success  that  I  could  have  sung  a  song  while 
waiting  for  the  hunters  to  bring  the  fawn. 
The  hunters  soon  returned  with  the  fawn,  and  I 
commanded  them  to  leave  it  at  a  certain  spot 
about  a  hundred  paces  from  me.  Then  rising 
in  my  seat  I  pointed  m^-*  revolver  at  it  and 
said:  'Die!,'  fired,  and  the  fawn  rolled  over 
dead. 

"It  was  a  simple  thing,  of  course,  to  3^ou 
and  me  who  have  known  fire-arms  all  our  lives, 
but  to  those  simple  Indians  who  had  been  im- 
mured for  centuries  in  a  lost  mountain  vallcA^  it 
was  nothing  else  than  a  miracle,  and  the  people 
covered  their  faces   in  fear  of  me,  who    could 


142  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

bring  death  by  stretching  forth  my  hand.  They 
saw  the  fire  leap  from  the  revolver's  mouth,  and 
they  believed  that  I  could  have  killed  them 
all  with  a  w^ave  of  my  hand.  I  noticed  that, 
while  the  war-chief  trembled  like  the  others, 
his  face  w^as  3^et  black  with  hatred,  and  1 
commanded  him  to  stand  before  me.  Slowly 
he  took  his  place  before  my  stone  throne, 
and  I  said : 

"'You,  oh  war-chief,  have  harbored  hatred 
of  your  king  in  3'our  heart.  It  would  be  just  if 
1  should  kill  3'ou  as  I  have  killed  the  fawn,  but  I 
am  a  merciful  king,  and  your  punishment  shall 
be  tempered  with  merc3^  Instead  of  killing 
you,  I  will  place  upon  you  an  everlasting  mark 
that  shall  warn  others  never  to  harbor  hatred 
for  the  king.  From  now  to  the  end  of  your  life 
you  shall  carry  the  nlark  of  the  avenging  fire  of 
my  wrath,  and  if  ever  again  you  shall  show 
hatred  for  me,  the  fire  that  now  enters  your 
hand  shall  enter  your  heart  and  you  shall  die 
and  be  accursed  !     Hold  up  your  right  hand  ! ' 

"The  chief  held  up  his  hand,  and  all  the 
time  his  face  was  ashen  with  the  fear  of  the 
supernatural  punishment.  I  took  aim  with  the 
revolver,  fired,  and  the  bullet  sped  through  his 


«c  c  c 
<  cc  t 


IN   THE  CAVERNS  OF  ULO  143 

hand,  leaving  a  hole  in  the  palm.  The  people 
hid  their  faces  in  fear.  Never  before  had  their 
king  shown  his  wrath  in  such  a  terrible  way. 
But  when  they  began  to  fear  me  thc}^  began  to 
hate  me  and  I  had  sown  the  seeds  for  the 
ending  of  the  reign  of  the  masked  king  of  Ulo. 
Again   I  spoke  to  the  people,  and  said  : 

"'Now,  oh  people  of  Ulo,  return  to  your 
homes  and  your  fields.  Hunt  in  the  Valley  of 
the  Beasts,  say  your  prayers  to  the  sun,  but 
never  again  say  one  word  in  opposition  to  3'our 
sacred  king.  And  remember  that  I  have  willed 
that  Lo-Zeenah  the  maid   remains  with  me.' 

''  The  people  rose  when  I  had  concluded, 
and,  bowing  low  before  me,  left  my  presence  in 
fear  and  trembling.  Lo-Zeenah  remained  be- 
hind, gazing  at  me  with  her  star-bright  eyes. 
When  the  people  w^ere  all  gone  she  came  be- 
fore me. 

"'Oh,  King,'  said  she,  '3^011  are  merciful. 
The  people  reviled  3^ou  and  \'ou  did  not  kill 
them.  You  are  merciful  and  just,  and  I,  your 
daughter,  revere  3'ou  more  than  ever.' 

"I  took  the  maid  with  me,  v^-ent  through 
the  stone  door  to  m^^  private  palace,  and  talked 
much  with  her,  not  telling  her  that  I  was  not 


144  TALES  OF  THE  :sUN-LAND 

really  the  Ulo  king.  She  was  a  beautiful  crea- 
ture as  she  stood  before  me  and  it  was  hard 
for  me  not  to  tell  her  of  m^-  love  for  her.  Her 
mantle  only  half  concealed  the  fair  proportions 
of  the  wearer ;  her  hair  was  loosed  and  fell  in 
flowing  profusion  to  her  knees ;  and  she  was 
the  most  beautiful  woman  I  had  ever  seen.  I 
found  her  to  be  a  inaid  of  wondrous  purity 
of  mind.  All  her  life  had  been  passed  in  the 
narrow  valley  of  Ulo,  but  she  was  as  wise  as 
many  people  who  have  roamed  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth.  I  asked  her  why  she  had  not  loved 
the  war-chief,  and  she  answered  that  he  was 
a  man  who  was  no  better  than  the  brutes  that 
roamed  in  the  Valley  of  Beasts. 

"  With  my  photographic  camera  I  made  a 
picture  of  the  girl  and  showed  it  to  her. 

"'Oh,  King,'  said  she,  'and  am  I  then  the 
one  chosen  to  be  the  mother  of  a  king?  I, 
Lo-Zeenah,  a  simple  maid  of  my  people !  Do 
you  think  that  I  may  be  good  enough  and  pure 
enough  so  that  this  great  thing  can  be  ?  And 
may  I  go  forth  with  the  new  tribe — go  forth 
over  the  cliffs  and  the  mountains,  and  see  the 
breadth  of  the  beautiful  land  that  was  made 
by   the  great  gods   of  Shi-pa-pu  ?      Oh,   King, 


7.Y  THE  CAVERXS  OF  ULO  145 

often  have  I  sat  in  the  A-alley  and  watched  the 
birds  fly  over  the  cliflfs,  and  I  have  longed  to 
be  free  like  them,  to  roam  at  will  over  the 
beautiful  earth.  For  the  earth  must  be  beauti- 
ful, as  it  was  made  by  the  gods.  Never  has  my 
heart  turned  in  love  to  a  man,  as  have  the 
hearts  of  the  other  luaids  of  our  people,  and 
sometimes  I  have  feared  that  luy  longing  for 
beaut^^  and  for  a  wider  life  might  keep  me  from 
loving  any  man  of  Ulo,  and  I  might  go  childless 
and  loveless  down  to  my  grave.' 

**Such  was  the  speech  of  Lo-Zeenah.  Do 
you  wonder  that  I  loved  her  more  as  I  knewr 
her  more  ? 

''  At  sundown  I  took  the  picture  I  had  made 
and  walked  to  the  precipice  that  was  at  the 
end  of  m^^  palace.  Looking  down  into  the 
valley  through  a  hole  in  the  rock,  I  saw  old 
men  sitting  in  waiting  for  the  image  I  had 
promised  them.  Standing  back  so  they  could 
not  see  me  I  threw  the  picture,  and  I  looked 
through  the  hole  in  the  stones  to  see  it  fall. 
The  old  men  saw  it  as  soon  as  it  fell,  and 
picking  it  up,  gazed  upon  it  in  wonder.  Then 
they  raised  their  voices  and  cried  out : 

'' '  Oh,  people  of  Ulo,  the  words  of  the  great 


146  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAXD 

prophecy  have  been  fulfilled.  The  sacred  image 
has  come  from  the  gods,  and  Lo-2eenah,  the 
Beautiful  Star  of  our  nation,  is  chosen  to  be 
the  mother  of  the  unborn  king!  Oh,  people 
of  Ulo,  Lo-2eenah  is  the  chosen  one ! ' 

''Then  the  people  took  up  the  cry,  and  as 
the  sun  went  down  I  could  hear  them  chanting, 
'  Lo-Zeenah  is  chosen  !  Lo-Zeenah  the  beautiful 
is  the  chosen  one  of  Those  Above  ! '  And  then 
I  went  back  to  my  palace  in  the  caverns  to 
talk  with  Lo-Zeenah. 

"I  was  but  a  youth  then,  Senor.  The  hot 
blood  of  my  young  years  was  coursing  in  my 
veins,  and  it  was  hard  for  me  not  to  clasp 
that  fair  girl  in  my  arms  and  tell  her  all  the 
tale  of  my  love  for  her.  But  I  feared  the 
result,  and  I  treated  her  as  an  old  man  might 
treat  a  little  child.  In  time  she  and  I  came 
to  know  each  other  well.  I  told  her  that  the 
religion  of  the  Ulo  was  about  to  change — told 
her,  by  degrees,  of  the  one  true  faith,  and  in 
time  we  came  to  know  each  other  so  well  that 
I  told  her  the  blessed  story  of  the  Great 
Redeemer  of  the  world,  and  I  baptized  her  as 
a  follower  of  the  Nazarene.  Then  I  removed 
the  white  mask  from  mv  face  and  stood  before 


IN  THE  CAVERXS  OF  ULO  147 

her  as  rtiA^  true  self.  She  gazed  upon  me  first 
in  fear,  then  in  \vonder,  and  then  the  soft 
hght  of  love  came  into  her  beautiful  eves.  I 
told  her  the  true  tale  of  how  I  came  there. 
I  told  her  all  the  stor\^  of  my  life.  I  showed 
her  the  hall  where  the  dead  kings  lay.  I  ex- 
plained to  her  the  myster\^  of  the  revolver  and 
of  the  picture,  and  then  I  said  : 

" '  Lo-Zeenah,  sweet  one,  now  you  know 
me  as  I  am.  I  am  no  god  and  no  king.  I 
am  but  a  wayfaring  youth  whom  fortune  has 
sent  to  the  strange  land  of  your  people.  I 
came  here  seeking  adventure ;  I  found  you  and 
love,  and  now  my  future,  my  very  life,  is  in 
your  hands,  for  a  word  from  you  will  cause 
your  people  to  fall  upon  me  and  take  my  life. 
But  I  love  you,  Lo-Zeenah,  more  than  ever  maid 
was  loved.' 

"She  smiled,  her  soft  arms  went  round  m3' 
neck,  her  sweet  lips  pressed  mine,  and  I  knew 
that  Lo-Zeenah  loved  me.  The  memor\^  of  that 
time  abides  with  me  to  this  day  as  the  sweetest 
and  best  time  that  was  ever  in  m^-  life,  and 
it  will  abide  with  me  and  cheer  me  even  unto 
the  time  when  I  shall  cross  the  dark  valley  of 
death. 


148  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAXD 

''How  we  lived  from  then  on  I  need  not 
tell  you.  But  to  me  the  pearh^  vales  of  heaven 
could  not  have  been  a  more  blissful  abode  than 
were  those  stone  caverns  by  the  sea,  where  my 
loved  one  dwelt  with  me.  We  were  young 
then,  Senor.  We  had  never  loved  before.  Does 
not  that  tell  you  all?  And  as  men  may  do 
in  barbarian  lands,  I  took  her  as  my  wife, 
intending  to  have  the  sacrament  performed 
\vhen  we  were  where  a  priest  could  be  found. 
Such  marriages  are  recognized   by  our  church. 

''Lo-Zeenah  listened  in  wonder  to  the  tales 
I  told  her  of  the  places  in  the  world  that  lay 
outside  of  the  lost  valle3'  where  her  life  had 
been  lived.  She  was  glad  when  I  told  her  I 
would  take  her  to  those  places,  and  she  entered 
into  plans  with  me  to  convert  the  people  of 
Ulo  to  Christianity,  and  then  to  go  to  Mexico 
together  to  live.  In  time  I  told  the  people 
something  of  the  new  creed,  and,  while  they 
greatly  feared  me  and  my  mysterious  power, 
they  were  so  angered  that  they  stoned  me. 
I  tried  for  many  da^-s  to  teach  them,  but  their 
anger  grew  worse.  In  time  they  tried  to  kill 
me,  and  I  was  compelled  to  retreat  to  the 
inner  palace  and  barricade  the  passage. 


IX  THE  CAVERNS  OF   ULO  149 

"Then  the  Ulos,  who  had  a  hatred  for 
ever3'one,  even  their  king,  who  tried  to  pro- 
fane the  old  religion,  sought  to  come  upon  us 
by  climbing  into  the  caverns.  The  war-chief 
succeeded  in  reaching  the  passage  that  led  from 
the  palace  to  the  sea.  He  found  my  fish-line 
and  tore  it  up,  and  then  he  entered  the  palace. 
His  leering  face  had  no  sooner  come  inside  the 
palace  than  a  bullet  entered  his  brain,  and  he 
fell  dead  before  us.  Then  were  \ve  prisoners; 
a  savage  race  on  one  side,  a  maze  of  winding 
passages  on  the  other.  But  in  spite  of  our 
danger  \ve  were  happ\',  so  great  is  the  power 
of  love  to  lighten  the  dark  places  of  life. 

"One  day  we  were  planning  of  the  life  we 
would  lead  in  far-away  Mexico,  and  wonder- 
ing if  we  should  succeed  in  finding  our  way  to 
the  sea,  when  we  heard  a  muffled  beating  at 
one  of  the  inner  doors  of  the  palace.  I  had 
heard  the  same  sound  in  the  old  king's  life- 
time, and  knew  it  was  made  by  the  snake,  but 
I  feared  to  admit  it,  as  Lo-Zeenah  might  be 
afraid.      I  told  her  what  it  was,  and  she  said  : 

"  '  M\^  loved  one,  is  not  the  snake  one  of 
God's  creatures,  the  same  as  you  and  I?  I 
would  not  fear  an^'thing  that   God  has  made. 


iSO  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

The  snake  may  not  be  so  beautiful  as  the  birds, 
or  the  fawns,  or  the  flowers,  but  it  came  from 
the  wisdom  of  the  great  father  of  wisdom,  and 
w^e  should  love  it,  and  not  fear  it.' 

*'I  opened  the  stone  door  and  admitted  the 
snake.  I  was  masked  and  it  did  not  know^  me 
from  the  old  king  who  was  dead.  It  wound  its 
slimy  folds  about  me  and  reared  its  grisly  head 
high  in  the  air.  Then  it  saw  Lo-Zeenah,  the 
first  unmasked  person  it  had  seen  for  long 
years,  and  a  hiss  came  from  its  mouth.  It 
quickly  unwound  itself  from  me,  reared  its 
horny  head  high  in  the  air,  and  before  either  of 
us  comprehended  what  it  might  do, it  struck  Lo- 
Zeenah  a  mighty  blow  full  in  the  face, — struck 
her,  and  bit  as  it  struck — and  she  fell  back, 
dying  from  its  poison !  I  clasped  her  in  my 
arms ;  I  besought  her  to  live  for  my  sake ;  I 
wept  tears  of  the  most  bitter  grief  over  her ; 
but  she  was  doomed,  and  I  could  not  save  her. 
She  drew  my  head  down  to  her  soft  bosom ;  she 
pressed  sweet  kisses  to  m^^  lips,  and  then  she 
died  in  my  arms,  with  a  sweeter  smile  on  her 
face  than  I  ever  saw  on  the  face  of  any  woman. 
All  the  time  the  ghastly  snake  reared  its  ugh^ 
head  high  in  the  air,  coiling  and  uncoiling  the 


It  reared  its  horny  head  high  in  the  air.' 


7A'  THE  CAVERXS  OF  ULO  151 

slim\^  folds  of  its  body,  and  sending  forth  shrill 
hisses  that  made  ray  blood  run  cold.  All  the 
world  had  grown  dark  to  me;  the  caverns  of 
Ulo  seemed  to  me  like  the  caverns  of  Pnrga- 
tor3^ ;  all  the  brightness  had  gone  from  m^^  life, 
and  I  pra^^ed  that  merciful  death  might  come  to 
me  there  by  the  side  of  m3^  dead  loved  one. 

"  When  my  grief  had  somewhat  spent  itself, 
I  arose  and  struck  the  snake  on  the  head  with 
my  hand.  I  hoped  that  I  might  anger  it  so 
that  it  would  bite  me,  but  it  cowered  and  slunk 
in  fear.  In  some  older  time  a  masked  man  had 
conquered  that  terrible  reptile,  and  it  still  feared 
the  powder  of  the  mask.  I  trampled  it,  and 
struck  it  with  rocks,  but  the  more  I  beat  it  the 
more  it  cow^ered  in  fear.  Then  I  took  my  revol- 
ver and  tried  to  kill  it,  but  the  bullets  fell  harm- 
less against  its  thick  hide. 

"I  took  the  body  of  Lo-Zeenah  and  em- 
balmed it  and  placed  it  in  the  chamber  of  the 
dead  kings.  There  it  lies  to  this  day,  the  most 
beautiful  thing  that  is  hidden  from  the  sight  of 
the  world.  Then  I  strove  to  make  m^^  escape, 
and  I  greath"  missed  the  guidance  of  the  line. 
I  wandered  for  hours  in  the  caverns  and  pas- 
sages,  and    at    last,  w^orn  out  with  weariness 


152  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

and  despair,  I  found  my  way  back  to  the  palace, 
that  place  where  I  had  known  so  much  joy,  and 
wrhere  I  had  known  grief  that  was  blacker  than 
the  gloom  of  the  grave.  The  snake  was  still  in 
the  palace  lying  prone  on  the  stone  floor,  its 
tongue  hanging  out  as  though  from  thirst.  Its 
craving  for  salt  water  would  have  sent  it  back 
to  its  own  cave,  but  the  stone  door  through 
which  it  should  have  gone  was  closed.  My 
grief  was  so  great  that  I  paid  but  little  heed  to 
the  snake;  and  worn  out  at  last,  I  la^^  down 
and  slept  for  hours.  When  I  awoke  I  saw  the 
snake  still  lying  where  it  had  been. 

"I  feared  that  I  would  never  find  my  way 
out  of  the  caverns,  and  that  I  was  doomed 
to  die  there  alone  under  the  earth.  Some  of 
the  people  of  the  Ulo  knew  the  windings  of 
the  passages,  but  I  dared  not  go  to  them.  As 
I  was  pondering  on  my  hard  fate  I  saw  the 
snake  raise  its  head  and  move  it  from  side  to 
side,  as  though  seeking  something.  A  thought 
struck  me,  and  I  believed  that  the  snake  might 
be  made  to  lead  me  to  the  sea.  I  had  a  jar 
full  of  salt  water  that  I  had  used  for  bathing, 
and  I  took  it  and  held  it  before  the  snake's 
head.     The  snake  seemed  almost  dead,  but  the 


7A^  THE  CAVERXS  OF  ULO  153 

smell  of  salt  water  animated  it ;  it  reared  its 
head  high  and  emitted  a  sound  that  was 
almost  like  a  groan.  Again  I  held  the  salt 
water  to  its  head,  and  then,  as  I  moved  away, 
it  followed  me  until  I  set  the  water  down. 
B\^  carrying  the  water,  I  led  the  snake  to  the 
mouth  of  the  passage  that  led  to  the  sea,  and 
then  I  threw  the  water  as  far  down  the  pas- 
sage-waA-  as  I  could. 

"Old  memories  that  had  lain  dormant  for 
years  seemed  to  be  revived  in  the  snake.  It 
reared  its  head  until  it  struck  the  top  of  the 
cavern,  and  gave  vent  to  almost  human  groans; 
then  it  dropped  its  head  to  the  earth,  raised  its 
tail,  as  a  snake  does  when  it  runs,  and  with  a 
shrill  cry  started  off  down  the  passage.  I 
believed  that  some  old  king,  long  3'ears  before, 
had  captured  that  snake  from  the  sea  and 
brought  it  through  that  passage- wa\%  and  I 
believed  that  it  would  find  its  way  back.  I 
grasped  its  horny  tail  in  my  hands  as  it 
crawled,  and  I  followed  it  through  the  dark 
passages,  tbat  were  dripping  with  water  that 
had  soaked  through  from  the  mountain  tops. 

''Slowly  the  snake  crawled  along.  It  paid 
no  heed  to  me,   although  I  clung  to  its    tail. 


154  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

and  it  constantly  gave  vent  to  moans  and  cries 
that  were  almost  human.  Sometimes  it  stopped 
as  though  puzzled,  and  then  it  went  on  again, 
winding  its  wa^^  through  the  mazy  tunnels. 
Once  it  stopped  and  remained  still  a  long  time, 
and  I  almost  despaired,  for  I  thought  I  should 
be  lost  and  should  die  —  I  and  that  ghastly 
thing,  hidden  deep  in  the  bowels  of  the 
mountains.  Then  the  snake  went  on  again, 
slowly  at  first,  then  faster,  then  haltingly 
again,  until  we  turned  a  sharp  corner  of 
the  passage,  and  a  faint  smell  of  the  sea  came 
to  my  nostrils.  .  The  snake  smelled  it,  too ;  it 
reared  its  head,  a  loud  cry  came  from  it,  and 
then  with  the  speed  of  a  race-horse  it  sped 
down  the  passage-way.  It  had  smelled  the 
sea,  the  scent  of  its  native  element  had  come 
to  it,  and  its  age  and  weakness  seemed  to  fade 
away  as  a  mist  fades  before  the  sun.  It  sped 
onward  so  rapidly  that  I  was  almost  thrown 
from  my  feet,  but  I  clung  to  it,  and  as  we  ran,* 
the  smell  of  the  sea  water  became  plainer  and 
plainer.  Soon  the  passage  became  light,  the 
wind  from  outside  blew  in  my  face,  and  then 
with  the  speed  of  the  w^nd  the  snake  drew  me 
forth  from  the  caverns,  and  I  stood  once  more 


IX  THE  CAVERNS  OF  ULO  155 

by  the  side  of  the  Httle  bay  where  1113^  boat 
was  moored.  There  again  was  the  beautiful 
sky  that  I  had  seen  but  once  in  months ;  there 
was  the  bkie  \vater  of  the  bay,  sparkhng  in  the 
sunhght,  and  beyond  the  stone  walls  of  the 
cliffs  I  conld  hear  the  surf  beating  upon  the 
rocks.  It  would  have  been  a  glad  time  to  me 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  sad  memories  of  the 
beautiful  one  I  had  loved  and  won  and  lost  in 
the  hideous  caverns  of  Ulo. 

''When  we  came  to  the  salt  water  the 
snake  was  like  a  thing  demented.  It  twisted 
its  huge  body  in  hideous  coils,  it  wound  and 
then  unwound  itself,  it  reared  itself  upward 
until  it  seemed  to  stand  on  its  tail,  and  then 
with  a  shrill  cr^^  it  leaped  oif  the  bank  and 
threw  itself  into  the  Avater.  It  shrieked  as 
it  struck  the  water,  it  dived  and  rose  again, 
it  laved  its  body,  and  then,  with  a  long,  shrill, 
almost  human  cry,  it  raised  its  head,  as  a  snake 
does  when  it  swims,  and  it  sped  away  through 
the  rocky  pass  to  the  broad  ocean,  and  I  saw 
it  no  more. 

"I  remember  that  hideous  snake  almost  as 
though  it  were  human.  It  both  loved  and 
feared  the  old  Ulo  king,  and  it  feared  and  loved 


156  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

me  because  I  seemed  like  him.  It  was  a  prisoner, 
and  for  how  long  it  had  been  a  prisoner  no  man 
can  tell.  It  had  been  stolen  from  the  ocean, 
had  been  imprisoned  in  the  rock  caves  of  Ulo, 
and  it  seemed  to  me  that  it  had  held  a  hatred 
for  all  things  but  the  priest,  hated  them 
because  it  was  a  captive.  It  had  killed  Lo- 
Zeenah,  but  it  would  not  kill  me,  who  courted 
death  from  it,  and  it  had  saved  my  life  by  lead- 
ing me  down  the  mazy  passages  to  the  sea. 
If  it  had  not  been  for  that  snake  I  might  now 
have  Lo-Zeenah  for  my  wife ;  and  if  it  had  not 
been  for  it,  too,  my  bones  might  now  be  rotting 
in  the  caves  of  Ulo.  It  was  one  of  God's 
creatures,  and  it  must  have  been  created  for 
some  good  use.     Quiensahe? 

*'  That  is  about  all  my  tale,  Sehor.  I  found 
my  boat  as  I  had  left  it,  unmoored  it,  steered 
it  through  the  rocky  pass,  and  set  sail  in  the 
open  ocean.  Within  a  day  I  was  sighted  by  a 
small  sailing  vessel  that  ran  between  the 
Isthmus  and  San  Francisco.  The  ship  took 
me  on  board ;  its  men  jeered  at  the  tale  I 
told  them,  called  me  crazy,  and  the  ship 
landed  me  in  San  Francisco.  I  returned  to 
Mexico,  and  after  a  time  I  went  again  striving 


7.Y  THE  CAVERNS  OF   ULO  157 

to  find  the  rockbound  bay  that  leads  to  the 
valle^^  of  Ulo.  I  searched  the  entire  west  coast 
of  Mexico  from  Guaymas  to  Acapnlco,  but  I 
could  not  find  it ;  and  I  do  not  believe  that  an^' 
man  after  me  will  ever  find  the  lost  tribe  of  Ulo. 
It  is  well,  too,  for  people  like  us  not  to  find 
them,  for  the3''  are  a  heathen  people,  Avho  hold 
a  hatred  for  everything  outside  of  their  own 
lost  valley,  and  we  belong  to  remorseless  na- 
tions that  would  reduce  that  proud  tribe  to  a 
nation  of  beggars  and  outcasts  and  serfs.  The 
Ulo  are  ignorant,  and  as  intolerant  as  ignorant 
people  ahvays  are.  But  they  are  not  a  bad 
people,  else  how  could  one  so  pure  and  good 
as  my  lost  Lo-Zeenah  have  been  reared  among 
them  ?  I  suppose  they  found  out  long  ago  that 
the  masked  king  was  gone,  and  I  think  they 
may  have  a  new  king,  for  heathen  minds  can 
always  find  something  to  w^orship." 

The  mellow  night  held  the  world  in  the 
mystery  of  its  beaut\'.  The  town  of  San  Mar- 
cial  slept  on  in  the  moonlight.  The  Mescaleros 
lay  motionless  under  the  cottonv^ood  trees,  and 
the  kronking  of  a  tree  frog  was  the  only  sound. 
The  Mexican  sat  in  silence  for  a  while,  his  face 
buried   in   his   hands   and  his   mind  wandering 


158 


TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 


back  to  that  time  when  he  had  known  love  and 
joy  and  peace  as  he  dwelt  with  his  nut-brown 
bride  in  a  cavern  by  the  sea ;  then  he  raised  his 
head  and  said  : 

"Is  not  the  night  beautiful,  Setior?  There 
is  much  trouble,  and  bitterness,  and  sorrow, 
and  suffering  upon  the  earth,  but  God  is  over 
all,  and  the  world  is  very  fair  if  our  eyes  are 
not  too  blinded  to  see  its  beauties." 


LOST  PUEBLO 


LoSTiaUEBLO 


AM  an  old  man,  and  mA^  name  is 
Hak-ki.  I  am  asonofLovSt  Pueblo, 
and  in  m3^  time  I  have  seen  stranger 
things  than  were  ever  seen  by  my 
fathers  or  the  fathers  of  m^^  fathers; 
and  as  you  are  a  white-skinned  wanderer  who 
tells  me  strange  tales  of  your  great  land  in  the 
North,  I  will  tell  you  the  true  tale  of  Lost 
Pueblo,  a  place  that  is  now  deserted  and  un- 
known to  men,  and  the  tale  of  my  nation  that, 
save  me,  is  vanished  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 
In  the  old  time  of  the  long  ago  there  flour- 
ished a  prosperous  pueblo  in  a  fertile  valley 
among  the  blue  mountains  of  the  land  that  the 
white-skinned  men  now  know  by  the  name  of 
New  Mexico.  The  people  of  that  pueblo  had 
been  known  as  wise  people  for  generations 
unnumbered;  its  fields  were  rich,  its  houses 
were  many   and   large,  and  its   shamans    said 

161 


162  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

that  the  Shiuana  looked  upon  it  with  great 
love,  and  that  the  pueblo  and  its  people  were 
very  dear  to  the  Great  Father  who  dwells  in 
the  sun.  The  men  of  the  pueblo  were  brave 
warriors  who  had  won  man\'  scalps  from  the 
savage  tribes  who  dwelt  in  the  wild  country 
surrounding  their  fields,  and  the  shamans  said 
that  the  sons  of  that  pueblo  would  never  be 
conquered.  But  a  \vitch  must  have  been  born 
among  that  people,  for  in  an  evil  hour  their 
glor\^  began  to  fade  and  their  prosperity  to 
diminish.  First  the  rains  came  not  in  the 
months  of  rain,  and  the  crop  of  maize  was 
blighted,  and  the  people  hungered  and  were 
nigh  unto  starvation  ;  then  the  savage  Apaches 
who  dwelt  in  the  wild  country  came  down  upon 
them  in  hordes,  killed  the  flower  of  their  young 
men,  carried  the  women  awa^^  as  slaves,  de- 
stroyed their  houses  and  even  their  sacred 
estufas,  and  the  old  men  of  the  tribe  sorrowed 
because  the  anger  of  the  Shiuana  had  fallen 
so  heavily  upon  them,  and  they  knew  not  the 
cause.  Sacred  dances  were  held ;  the  shamans 
fasted  until  the  life  was  almost  gone  from  their 
bodies;  the  men,  the  women,  and  the  children 
stood  upon  the  house-tops    and    pra^xd,   and 


They  stood  on  the  house-tops  and  prayed." 


LOST  PUEBLO  163 

sacrifices  were  offered ;  but  instead  of  smiles 
from  the  Shiuana  there  came  a  strange  and  un- 
known disease,  and  many  people  were  mowed 
down  b\^  death  and  hurried  on  the  road  to  the 
Land  Above. 

In  that  old  pueblo  there  was  a  young  man 
of  great  braverA^  who  sorrowed  much  that  his 
people  were  so  sorely  stricken,  and  although  he 
was  not  a  shaman,  he  went  into  a  cave  alone 
and  fasted  seven  days  and  seven  nights ;  and 
then  it  was  revealed  unto  him  that  the  pueblo 
of  his  fathers  was  grown  too  populous,  that 
the  people  w^ere  too  many  to  live  from  the 
lands,  and  that  the  w^ars  wath  the  Apaches  and 
the  ravages  of  the  plague  were  but  visitations 
sent  to  reduce  the  number  of  the  people,  to 
destroy  some  so  that  all  might  not  die  or  be 
forced  to  engage  in  unholy  w^ar  with  each 
other  for  food. 

This  warrior  told  of  what  had  been  re- 
vealed unto  him  in  the  cave,  and  many  of  the 
wise  old  men  shook  their  heads  and  said  he 
lied ;  but  many  young  men  and  A^oung  women 
believed  in  him ,  and  asked  of  him  w^hat  he 
thought  might  be  done  that  they  and  their 
fathers  might  not    die  nor    engage  in  unholy 


164  TALES  OF  THE  SUX-LAXD 

war  each  with  his  brethren,  which  would  be 
worse  than  to  die.  The  young  warrior  knew 
not  what  reply  to  make,  and  to  gain  wisdom 
he  went  again  to  the  cave  and  fasted  for  three 
days  and  three  nights  more,  when  it  was  re- 
vealed unto  him  that  he  must  select  one  person 
from  every  six  who  dwelt  in  the  pueblo,  and 
with  them  go  to  a  strange  land  and  found  a 
new  pueblo  that  should  be  a  home  for  him  and 
his  friends  and  the  children  of  him  and  his 
friends.  And  when  he  spoke  of  this  to  the 
3^oung  people  of  the  pueblo  they  believed  that 
he  spoke  in  true  words  and  not  in  lies. 

So  it  came  about  that  a  great  dance  was 
held,  and  then  the  warrior  and  one  man  out  of 
every  six  men,  and  one  woman  out  of  every  six 
Avomen,  and  one  urchin  out  of  every  six  urchins 
in  the  puel^lo  took  bags  of  maize  and  meat  and 
seeds,  and  put  them  on  their  heads  or  slung 
them  on  their  shoulders,  and  they  all  set  out 
toward  the  land  where  the  sun  is  when  the  da\^ 
is  three-fourths  dead.  For  six  daA's  these  people 
journeved,  and  the  sun  was  hot  and  the  way 
was  weary  ;  and  on  the  morning  of  the  seventh 
day  they  came  to  a  high  mountain  that  rose  to 
the  snow,  and  around  which  there  seemed  to  be 


LOST  PUEBLO  165 

no  pass.  The  warrior  sent  men  to  seek  for  a 
way  around  the  mountain,  but  in  one  day's 
tiine  the^^  returned  with  sad  faces  to  say  that 
there  was  no  way. 

Then  the  wear_v  men  were  sorry  in  their 
hearts,  and  the  women  fell  on  their  faces  and 
tore  their  hair;  but  the  warrior  was  of  good 
cheer,  for  he  knew  that  he  had  been  guided 
aright.  The  warrior  bade  his  people  eat 
and  drink  and  gain  strength,  and  after  three 
da^^s  of  resting  he  bade  them  climb  the 
mountain.  The  men  grew  angr^^  and  called 
him  a  fool  and  the  son  of  a  witch;  but  he 
told  them  that  to  return  to  their  fathers  was 
to  starve,  that  there  was  no  pass  around  the 
mountain,  and  that  if  they  believed  the  Shiuana 
did  not  lie  they  must  believe  that  their  way  led 
across  the  top  of  the  mountain.  Then  the  men 
who  had  murmured  were  ashamed,  and  they  all 
began  to  climb  the  mountain.  The  way  was 
of  rocks  and  hurt  their  feet,  and  as  they  went 
higher  it  grew  bitterly  cold,  and  the  people  were 
almost  read}^  to  lie  down  on  the  wild  moun- 
tain and  die ;  but  the  young  warrior,  whose 
name  was  Looki,  cheered  them,  and  told  them 
that  they  must  surely  find  a  beautiful  land  ere 


166  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

many  days.  And  just  as  the  strongest  men 
were  giving  up  in  despair,  Looki  gained  the 
crest  of  the  mountain  of  snow  and  sent  up  such 
a  shout  of  joy  that  his  voice  reached  even  the 
fainting  ones  who  had  lain  down  and  refused  to 
go  farther.  The  people  were  cheered  by  Looki's 
voice,  and  they  gathered  their  strength  and 
struggled  to  the  crest  of  the  mountain,  where  it 
was  very  cold  because  of  the  snow,  and  where 
there  were  no  trees.  But  when  they  reached 
the  very  top,  and  could  look  down  on  the  other 
side,  their  hearts  were  very  glad,  for  far,  far 
down  below  them  there  was  a  beautiful  green 
valle)%  all  shut  in  by  high  snow  mountains,  in 
which  there  was  green  grass  and  many  green 
trees,  and  herds  of  deer  and  of  bison. 

On  the  sides  of  the  mountain  nearest  to 
the  valley  there  were  springs  from  which  the 
water  flowed  forever,  and  the  people  rejoiced 
and  knew  that  that  valley  was  their  Promised 
Land.  But  the  side  of  the  mountain  nearest 
to  the  valley  was  so  steep  that  even  a  wild 
goat  of  the  mountains  could  not  go  down,  and 
the  people  knew  not  how  to  descend.  Again 
the  young  warrior  sent  away  a  man  to  search 
for  a  way  to  get  into  the  valley,  and,  although 


LOST  PUEBLO  167 

it  was  very  cold  on  the  top  of  the  mountain,  the 
people  did  not  complain.  The  man  returned 
with  a  sad  face  and  said  that  there  was  no 
way ;  but  again  Looki  w^as  of  good  cheer,  and 
he  told  the  men  to  take  their  garments  and  the 
women  to  take  their  robes  and  to  tie  them  all 
together  one  to  the  other ;  and  when  this  was 
done  they  fastened  the  rope  of  clothes  to  a  crag 
of  rock,  and  one  by  one  the  people  took  hold  of 
the  rope  and  perilously  climbed  down  from  the 
mountain  of  snow  into  the  beautiful  valley  of 
grass.  When  the  last  one  was  down  they 
pulled  at  the  rope  of  clothes  until  it  broke  from 
the  crag,  and  they  all  had  their  garments  again. 
Then  they  turned  their  faces  to  the  Father  in  the 
Sun  and  gave  thanks  that  the^^  had  been  safely 
led  to  a  new  home  in  a  far  countr3'. 

When  they  were  all  safe  in  the  valley  they 
killed  bison  with  arrows  and  had  food,  and 
then  the  women  began  to  build  houses,  and  the 
men  planted  the  seeds  they  had  carried  from  the 
pueblo  of  their  fathers.  And  that  was  how 
there  came  to  be  founded  the  pueblo  that  in  all 
the  old  pueblos  was  forever  after  known  as 
Lost  Pueblo. 

In  the  old  pueblo  there  were  no  tidings  heard 


168  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

of  the  people  who  had  gone  forth,  until  after 
two  harvests  had  gone  b3^,  and  the  people  be- 
lieved their  children  had  been  slain  by  the  wald 
Apaches  while  making  their  journe3^  But  one 
man  who  had  gone  forth  with  the  wanderers 
returned  to  the  pueblo  of  his  fathers,  and  he 
was  half  crazed,  like  a  deer  that  had  eaten  of 
the  poison  loco,  or  like  a  man  that  had  been 
bewitched  by  some  vile  bird.  When  he  was  fed 
and  had  rested  he  told  of  the  journeyings  of 
the  wanderers,  and  of  the  new  pueblo  they  had 
builded  in  the  green  valley'.  He  had  tired  of  the 
new  pueblo  and  had  longed  for  the  land  of  his 
fathers,  so  he  had  climbed  the  high  mountain  of 
.snow  and  come  home.  He  was  so  near  to 
starving  and  to  dying  from  cold  that  the 
strength  of  his  mind  had  gone  from  him,  and 
when  he  tried  to  lead  the  men  to  the  new  pueblo 
he  could  not,  although  he  tried  for  many  weary 
days ;  and  the  men  who  dwelt  in  the  old  pueblo 
never  again  heard  of  their  children  who  had 
gone  forth,  and  forever  after  they  spoke  of 
them  as  their  children  who  dwelt  in  Lost 
Pueblo. 

The  people   who   builded  the  new  pueblo  in 
the  valley  longed  to   hear  from    their  fathers 


LOST  PUEBLO  169 

again,  and  the^^  tried  to  find  a  way  over  the 
vast  mountains  of  snow  that  shut  them  in  on 
every  side,  but  they  could  find  no  Avay,  and  they 
too  named  their  home  Lost  Pueblo.  And  for  six 
hundred  years  these  people  and  their  children 
and  the  children  of  their  children's  children 
lived  out  their  lives  in  Lost  Pueblo,  which  was 
in  a  green  valle^^  six  miles  one  wa\^  and  two 
miles  another  w^a^^  and  was  like  a  pit  cut  in  the 
face  of  the  mountains.  The\^  worshipped  the 
gods  of  their  fathers,  they  kept  green  the  mem- 
ories of  all  the  knowledge  that  w^as  known 
in  the  old  pueblo,  and  after  six  hundred  3^ears 
had  gone  into  the  past  the  people  of  Lost  Pueblo 
were  a  wise  people,  being  even  as  wise  as  their 
forefathers  Avho  had  found  the  valley.  It  was 
in  my  lifetime  that  the  nation  of  the  valley  was 
six  hundred  3^ears  old,  and  among  that  people  I 
w^as  a  chief  and  a  priest. 

When  I  was  a  young  man  there  was  born 
into  m3^  nation  a  male  child  w^ho  w^as  named 
Sa^— Len  ;  and  when  I  was  becoming  an  old 
man  Say-Len  was  a  strong  young  man,  and 
such  another  young  man  had  never  lived  in 
Lost  Pueblo.  He  w-as  so  strong  that  he  could 
do  the  work  of  two  strong  men   and  find  the 


170  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

work  to  be  but  play ;  he  was  so  gentle  that  he 
would  leave  the  council  to  soothe  a  cr^dng 
child;  and  he  was  so  brave  that  he  longed  to 
be  a  warrior  and  make  war  for  his  people ;  and 
when  the  fathers  told  old  tales  of  the  wars 
our  forefathers  of  the  old  land  had  fought  six 
hundred  years  before,  the  heart  of  Say-Len  was 
heavy  within  him,  for  the  people  of  our  Lost 
Pueblo  knew  no  other  nations,  and  there  were 
no  savage  tribes  to  make  war  upon.  Say-Len 
looked  upon  the  walls  of  our  valley  as  a  cap- 
tive looks  upon  the  walls  of  his  prison,  and  he 
longed  to  cross  those  walls  and  learn  if  the  sons 
of  our  people  still  dwelt  in  the  old  land  among 
the  mountains.  Say-Len  loved  a  maid  of  Lost 
Pueblo,  and  for  her  sake,  and  to  show  her 
how  brave  he  was,  he  longed  to  scale  the 
mountains,  to  go  forth  to  the  old  land  of  his 
forefathers,  and  to  learn  what  manner  of  men 
and  of  things  were  in  the  world  that  lay  beyond 
our  narrow  valley.  The  old  men  of  the  nation 
were  sad  because  of  the  longings  of  Say-Len, 
and  his  mother  and  the  maid  he  loved  also 
besought  him  to  remain  among  his  own  people 
and  be  content.  He  paid  no  heed  to  their  en- 
treaties and  he  daily  tried  to  scale  the  mighty 


LOST  PUEBLO  171 

walls  of  living  rock  that  hedged  in  the  valley 
of  our  home.  It  sounds  like  a  lie  to  say  it, 
but  it  is  true  that  in  time  he  climbed  out  of  the 
valle^'.  He  himself  could  never  say  how  it  came 
about  that  he  was  able  to  climb  out,  but  he 
believed,  and  I  believe,  that  he  had  the  help 
of  the  Shiuana,  who  are  good  to  brave  men. 
When  he  had  climbed  out  of  the  valley,  then 
were  the  hearts  of  our  people  very  heavy  with 
sadness,  for  Sa^^-Len  was  the  bravest  son  of 
our  nation,  and  we  never  hoped  to  look  upon 
his  face  again. 

As  the  3'ears  passed  away  we  prayed  to 
our  Great  Father  in  the  sun  that  he  would 
guard  Sa\'-Len  wherever  he  might  wander,  and 
that  if  he  lived  he  would  bring  him  back  to 
his  own  people.  But  the  time  was  so  long 
that  we  did  not  think  our  praj-ers  would  be 
answered.  For  five  years  the  people  of  Lost 
Pueblo  heard  no  word  of  Sa3'-Len,  and  all  but 
the  maid  he  loved  believed  him  dead ;  but  the 
maid  refused  to  wed  with  any  other,  saying 
alwa\^s  that  she  beHeved  Sa^^-Len  would  return 
to  her.  The  maid  believed  a  truth,  for  in  five 
years  the  wanderer  returned  to  his  own  land 
and  his  own  people. 


172  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

One  day  I  was  tilling  maize  in  my  field, 
when  I  heard  a  great  shout  go  up  from  the 
pueblo,  and  I  hurried  to  my  house  and  found 
the  people  gazing  up  at  the  great  snow  moun- 
tain that  rose  above  the  valley ;  and  on  the 
top  of  the  snow  mountain  there  stood  a  man 
who  waved  a  white  cloth  to  the  people.  The 
fathers  and  priests  of  our  tribe  were  afraid 
and  counselled  together,  and  they  thought  the 
strange  man  must  be  a  witch  or  an  evil  spirit, 
and  they  brought  arrows  to  shoot  him ;  but  in 
all  my  life  there  had  never  been  such  a  glad 
time  to  me,  for  I  knew  it  was  Say-Len  who 
stood  above  us,  and  when  I  told  my  people, 
their  cries  of  fear  were  turned  to  such  shouts  of 
joy  as  were  never  before  heard  in  Lost  Pueblo. 

Say-Len  had  a  great  rope  with  him,  and  he 
fastened  it  to  the  same  crag  on  the  mountain 
that  the  people  had  fastened  the  rope  of  clothes 
to  in  the  old  time;  and  when  he  had  come 
down  on  his  rope  he  left  it  tied  to  the  crag,  so 
that  an3^  one  who  would  might  use  it  to  get 
out,  I  am  the  onh^  one  who  ever  climbed  that 
rope,  and  it  was  so  hard  to  climb,  and  so  long 
was  the  way,  that  I  was  almost  content  to  let 
loose  and  fall  and  die  in  the  valley-. 


LOST  PUEBLO  173 

Say-Len  came  home  at  an  evil  time,  and  he 
fotind  his  people  in  great  trouble.  A  rift  had 
broken  in  the  side  of  the  high  mountain  where 
the  springs  were,  and  water  was  running  into 
the  valley  faster  than  there  was  an3'  wa3^  for  it 
to  get  out.  Alread^^  the  lower  maize  fields  were 
destroyed;  in  two  moons  it  would  surround 
the  houses,  and  the  oldest  and  wisest  of  all  our 
people  could  not  tell  where  this  water  came 
from . 

When  Say-Len  had  come  down  the  moun- 
tain and  was  again  among  his  own  people,  we 
saw  that  he  bore  the  looks  of  a  man  who  had 
borne  a  great  grief  He  greeted  us,  and  then 
ran  to  the  house  of  his  own  clan  and  caressed 
his  mother,  and  then  he  sought  out  the  maid 
that  was  dear  to  him,  and  caressed  her,  and 
then  he  told  the  old  men  to  call  the  people 
together  and  he  would  speak  to  them.  I  am  an 
old  man  and  a  chief  and  I  have  seen  many  years 
go  into  the  past,  but  the  speech  of  Say-Len  was 
the  strangest  speech  that  I  have  ever  heard. 

Sa^-Len  told  that  his  heart  had  failed  him 
when  he  had  reached  the  top  of  the  snow  moun- 
tain, and  that  he  longed  to  return  again  to  the 
valley,  but  could   find  no  way.      He  rested  on 


174  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

the  top  of  the  mountain,  and  then  began  to 
climb  down  on  the  other  side,  going  down  in 
the  same  way  the  people  had  climbed  up  six 
hundred  years  before.  As  he  climbed  down  the 
mountain  at  first  he  came  only  to  naked  rocks 
and  snow,  but  soon  he  came  to  small  trees  and 
then  to  flowers,  as  it  was  the  time  of  spring, 
and  then  he  was  off  the  mountain  and  was  in 
a  great  valley  of  sand  that  stretched  away 
farther  than  the  sight  of  his  eyes  could  carry. 
He  could  see  so  much  that  he  was  afraid  at  first, 
but  soon  the  sun  came  from  behind  a  cloud  and 
then  he  was  not  afraid  ;  for  the  sun  shone  into 
the  valley  where  he  had  lived  his  life;  the  sun 
was  the  home  of  the  Father  of  his  nation,  and  he 
knew  it  was  good  for  him  when  the  sun  smiled 
upon  him.  He  then  set  out  across  the  wide 
valley  of  sand  to  seek  the  old  pueblo  whence  the 
forefathers  of  his  forefathers  journeyed  six  hun- 
dred years  before.  He  journeyed  six  days  and 
slept  six  nights,  and  on  the  seventh  day  he  came 
to  two  long  pieces  of  iron  that  stretched  across 
all  of  the  valley ;  and  he  knew  not  what  they  were 
for.  He  sat  down  by  the  pieces  of  iron  to  think, 
and  men  with  white  faces  who  were  dressed  in 
strange   garments  came  over  the  iron,    being 


LOST  PUEBLO  175 

drawn  b^^  a  might3'  thing  that  breathed  out 
smoke  and  fire.  Say-Len  was  not  afi-aid,  for 
the  people  who  wear  the  head-bands  and  side 
locks  know  not  fear,  and  the  men  stopped  their 
mighty  thing  and  took  Say-Len  with  them. 
They  gave  him  strange  food  to  eat  and  strange 
things  to  drink,  but  when  he  asked  them  of  the 
pueblo  he  was  seeking  the^^  shook  their  heads 
and  did  not  understand.  Say-Len  did  not  un- 
derstand the  speech  of  the  white-faced  men,  but 
they  took  him  with  them  away  to  the  North 
and  away  to  the  East,  much  farther  than  he 
thought  the  world  ran.  They  took  him  to  the 
great  pueblos  of  their  own  people,  and  Say-Len 
has  told  me  that  such  w^onderful  pueblos  are 
known  to  no  other  nations  except  the  blest 
ones  who  dwell  in  the  bright  pueblos  of 
Shipapu.  The  white  men  taught  Say-Len  the 
language  of  their  people,  but  he  did  not  teach 
them  his  language  nor  tell  them  of  the  valley 
where  his  nation  dwelt,  so  the^^  knew  not  of 
what  nation  Say-Len  was,  and  they  called  him 
a  Pueblo  Indian. 

For  five  years  Say-Len  dwelt  among  the 
white-skinned  people,  and  he  told  us  many 
tales  of  the  strange  things  he  saw  among  them. 


176  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

He  said  the  white-skinned  people  dwelt  in  a 
great  land  that  stretched  from  the  sunrise  to 
the  sunset,  that  their  pueblos  were  of  greater 
number  than  the  numbers  of  the  stars  in  the 
sky.  He  said  that  the  people  had  wires  that 
talked,  wires  that  gave  forth  a  greater  light 
than  is  given  by  the  sun,  machines  that  draw 
loads,  machines  that  do  the  work  of  men,  and 
that  they  had  more  gold  than  the  valley-  of  Lost 
Pueblo  would  hold.  But  he  said  they  were  an 
unwise  people  and  an  unholy  people,  and  he 
loved  them  not.  The\^  love  gold  so  much  that 
they  seek  it  through  all  their  lives,  and  will  not 
even  take  time  to  stand  on  their  house-tops  to 
pray.  They  have  great  riches,  yet  the  poor 
people  in  the  great  pueblos  die  for  the  want  of 
maize.  The  gods  have  blessed  them  in  all  ways, 
but  they  love  not  the  gods  and  forget  them 
in  their  seeking  after  gold.  Say-Len  said  the 
simple  life  of  his  own  people  was  nearer  to  the 
heart  of  God  than  was  the  life  of  the  white 
nations ;  and  he  tore  the  strange  clothes  from 
his  back,  donned  again  the  garb  of  his  own 
people,  took  the  maid  who  was  dear  to  him  for 
wife,  and  took  up  again  with  gladness  the 
quiet  life  of  his  own  people. 


The  mig-hty  waters  that  cover  Lost  Pueblo. 


LOST  PUEBLO  177 

Evil  seemed  to  pursue  Say-Len,  the  bravest 
son  of  Lost  Pueblo,  and  the  second  day  after  he 
took  his  wife,  even  \vhile  the  marriage  dance 
was  being  celebrated,  he  was  stricken  down 
with  a  hideous  plague,  called  by  him  the  small- 
pox of  the  white-faced  people;  and  in  three  days 
more  he  died,  and  his  spirit  joined  the  spirits  of 
his  fathers  above.  While  he  was  yet  being 
prayed  across  the  bad  land  that  lies  between 
life  and  Shipapu,  others  were  stricken  with  the 
plague,  and  soon  it  came  about  that  the  death 
wail  was  heard  afresh  in  every  hour.  Death 
dwelt  in  our  valley  from  that  time  on,  and 
during  the  rising  of  forty  moons  the  people  of 
Lost  Pueblo  had  all  died,  and  my  nation  had 
faded  from  the  face  of  the  earth  —  all  but  me, 
who  am  an  old  man  whose  memories  are  full 
of  sorrow,  and  who  would  be  better  dead. 

I  know  not  wh\^  I  escaped  the  plague  unless 
it  is  that  I  am  a  wise  shaman  who  fasted  much 
and  who  am  loved  by  those  above.  I  stayed  in 
the  deserted  valley  of  m^^  birth  and  kept  the 
sacred  fire  burning  and  prayed  for  the  souls  of 
my  people,  until  the  waters  from  the  rift  had 
reached  the  houses  ;  and  then  I  climbed  the  rope 
that   Say-Len  had  left  hanging  from  the  crag. 


178  TALES  OF  SUN -LAND 

and  I  came  to  the  valley  of  sand  and  wandered 
to  the  iron  road  and  across  it  until  I  came  to 
this  pueblo,  which  is  a  pueblo  of  the  people  of 
my  own  blood  and  whose  forefathers  were  one 
with  ray  forefathers  more  than  six  hundred 
years  ago.  Here  I  am  welcome  although  a 
stranger,  and  here  will  I  dwell  until  my  burden 
of  years  falls  from  me,  and  I  can  join  my  people 
in  the  fair  land  of  Shipapu, — that  bright  land  in 
the  sun,  where  Po-so-Yemmo  sits  at  the  right 
hand  of  Yo-See,  and  where  peace,  and  plenty, 
and  jo3^  and  freedom  from  sorrow  and  death, 
will  be  known  throughout  tlie  countless  years 
of  an  endless  forever. 

*'  I  am  an  old  man,  and  my  name  is  Hak-ki ; 
my  nation  is  gone  from  the  face  of  the  earth, 
the  ancient  home  of  my  people  is  covered  with 
the  cruel  waters,  and  there  is  no  more  joy  for 
me  in  living.  I  am  an  alien  in  this  pueblo,  and 
it  cheers  me  to  talk  with  3'ou,  who  are  a  white- 
faced  man  of  the  same  nation  that  was  known 
to  Say-Len,  and  I  tell  you  this  tale  because  you 
have  seen  strange  things,  for  3^ou  tell  that  the 
mighty  waters  that  cover  Lost  Pueblo  have 
also  made  a  great  water  called  the  Salton  Sea. 
I  know  not  how  you  know  of  this,  but  I  believe 


LOST  PUEBLO 


179 


you  speak  in  true  words,  for  the  great  know- 
ledge and  the  strange  tales  of  your  nation  pass 
mv  understanding.  I  believe  the  strange  tales 
you  tell  me;  but  I  believe  your  own  great  people 
know  no  stranger  tales  than  the  one  I  have  told 
you  of  my  lost  nation  and  of  the  Lost  Pueblo 
where  I  was  born. 


-..-■;:-:V-i^^;:-Vt 


A  CIVILIZED  HEATHEN 


ETRA'S  name  was  Sayla.  That  is, 
her  name  had  been  Sayla  until 
the  missionaries  had  come  to  bap- 
tize all  the  children  in  the  pueblo, 
and  they  then  gave  her  the  name 
of  Petra.  The  missionaries  \vere  so  anxious  to 
win  the  Indians  from  all  their  heathenish  ways 
that  the^^  did  not  even  allow  them  to  retain 
their  old  names.  Of  all  the  children  they  bap- 
tized, there  were  none  more  comely  than  little 
Sayla.  Her  parents  were  among  the  poorest 
people  in  the  pueblo,  yet  they  always  managed 
to  keep  her  well  dressed.  When  the  times  were 
too  hard  with  her  father  for  him  to  trade  for 
blankets  with  the  Navajos,  her  mother  wove 
blankets  out  of  wool  that  she  earned  by  work- 
ing for  the  medicine  chief  Sayla,  or  Petra, 
w^as  so  bright  and  pretty,  and  learned  so 
rapidly,  that  two  mission   teachers,  who  came 


184  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAXD 

to  the  pueblo,  determined  to  send  her  to  school 
in  an  Eastern  city.  Petra  cried  a  great  deal 
upon  leaving  her  mother,  for  her  father  had 
died  just  before;  and  many  of  the  oldest  and 
wisest  men  in  the  pueblo  shook  their  heads 
and  said  it  would  be  better  if  Petra  stayed 
in  her  OAvn  pueblo  and  married  a  man  of  her 
own  people. 

They  thought  it  w^as  better  for  a  w^oman  to 
learn  to  grate  corn  and  to  plaster  houses  than 
to  learn  to  read  and  write,  and  the  other 
useless  things  the  white  people  learned  out 
of  books.  But  Petra  was  ambitious,  and  she 
went   away  to   school. 

One  day  I  was  wandering  about  the  dusty, 
crooked  little  streets  of  an  Indian  pueblo.  As 
guide  and  interpreter  I  had  a  fifteen-year-old 
Pueblo  boy,  who  had  been  educated  at  Santa 
Fe,  and  who  spoke  Spanish  and  English  as 
fluenth^  as  he  spoke  the  dialect  of  his  own 
people. 

I  had  met  two  other  men  who  could  speak 
a  very  little  English,  and  had  found  one  girl 
who  could  say,  (thanks  to  the  efforts  of  a 
mission  priest),  that  the  house  of  her  uncle 
w^as  greater  than  the  house  of  the  brother  of 


A   CIVILIZED  HEATHEN  185 

her  aunt.  That  Avas  all  the  English  I  had 
expected  to  hear  in  that  isolated  village  in 
foreign  America,  and  I  was,  therefore,  some- 
what surprised  upon  entering  an  unprepossess- 
ing little  mud-hut  to  be  accosted  with  : — 

''Good  morning,  sir." 

The  woman  who  thus  addressed  me  smiled 
in  a  ghastly  manner.  She  was  one  of  those 
peculiar-looking  people  whose  age  is  difficult 
to  determine.  One  of  her  eyes  was  out,  her 
face  was  rather  wrinkled ,  there  was  a  percep- 
tible stoop  in  her  shoulders,  and  her  thinness 
was  in  marked  contrast  to  the  plumpness 
common  to  the  Pueblo  w^omen.  The  usual  pla- 
cid contentment  of  the  Pueblo  women  w^as  also 
lacking.  She  w^as  barefooted,  clad  in  a  single 
garment,  and  in  her  arms  she  held  a  little 
girl -baby,  who  was  nearer  naked  than  her- 
self. 

My  interpreter  went  out  to  w^atch  a  game 
of  patol  that  was  being  carried  on  in  the 
shadow  of  a  mud  wall,  and  I  sat  down  on 
a  long  seat,  covered  with  blankets,  that  ran 
along  one  entire  side  of  the  room,  lighted  my 
pipe,  and  made  ready  to  listen  to  the  tale 
of  Petra. 


186  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

**No,  amigo  mia,  I  am  not  proud  that  1 
speak  English;  instead,  I  am  sorry.  There  was 
a  time  when  I  was  very  proud  that  I  could 
talk  in  the  language  of  the  great  Americanos, 
and  there  was  another  time  when  I  hated  every 
word  in  the  language,  and  every  white-skinned 
man  and  woman  who  spoke  it ;  but  the  troubles 
that  gave  me  the  fierceness  have  also  taken 
the  fierceness  away,  and  now  I  am  only  sorry. 
I  am  glad  to  see  you  and  to  speak  to  you  in 
your  language.  I  speak  it  so  rarely  that  I 
almost  forget  it,  for  here  we  speak  only  Teguan 
and  Spanish.  The  sight  of  you  takes  me  back 
to  a  time  when  I  was  a  happy  girl.  Are  you 
not  hungry?      Will  you  not  eat? 

"Yes,  I  will  tell  you  my  story.  I  am,— in 
your  language  it  is  called  a  Magdalen,— and  I 
am  now  hated  by  all  the  people  of  this  pueblo- 
hated  so  much  that  when  my  little  girl  grows 
up  she  will  not  be  allowed  to  play  with  the 
other  children. 

**My  father  was  a  poor  man,  and  my 
mother,  who  still  lives,  has  always  been  a  poor 
woman.  I  have  no  brothers  or  sisters.  When 
I  was  a  little  girl  a  Spanish  priest  came  here 
from  Mexico  to  baptize  the  little  children   and 


A   CIVILIZED  HEATHEN  187 

to  learn  if  the  people  were  yet  lo^-al  to  the  holy 
faith.  He  liked  me,  for  I  was  pretty  and 
bright  when  I  was  a  little  girl,  and  he  taught 
me  to  speak  Spanish.  That  padre  went  to 
Mexico  and  died,  and  then  a  priest  came  to 
us  from  Baltimore,  and  with  him  came  two 
women  who  kept  a  school  to  teach  the  Indian 
children.  The  Indians  did  not  send  their  chil- 
dren to  school,  and  the  women  went  awa^^ 
and  when  they  went  they  took  me  with 
them.  I  was  then  of  the  age  of  fourteen, 
and  was  old  enough  to  be  married  to  Pablo 
Bateis,  who  sent  his  mother  to  ask  for  me; 
but  I  wondered  about  the  land  of  the  white 
people,  and  I  would  not  marry  him,  preferring 
to  go  away  with  the  women.  It  was  a 
good  school  where  I  lived,  and  there  I  learned 
English  and  many  other  things.  I  translated 
the  poem  of  'The  Raven'  into  Spanish,  and 
my  teacher  sent  it  to  Madrid,  where  it  was 
published  in  a  newspaper.  That  was  consid- 
ered a  great  thing  for  an  Indian  girl  to  do. 
"When  I  had  been  three  3'ears  in  the 
school  I  greatly  liked  the  ways  of  the  white 
people,  and  would  have  lived  among  them 
always,  but  they  told  me   I  must  go  to    my 


188  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

own  pueblo,  and  teach  the  Indian  women 
to  live  as  the  white  women  do.  I  was  very 
glad  to  be  home  again  and  glad  to  see  my 
mother;  but  I  grew  tired  of  the  pueblo  in  a 
little  while,  as  the  people  did  not  want  to 
learn  new  things,  and  it  seemed  A^ery  dull  to 
live  just  the  same  life  over  and  over  again 
one  day  after  the  other.  The  people  did  not 
like  me  very  well  either,  for  I  wore  the  dress  of 
a  white  woman,  and  the  wise  old  men  of  the 
tribe  did  not  like  that  I  should  be  different 
from  the  women  of  our  own  nation.  Those 
wise  old  men  are  fools  who  do  not  know  as 
much  as  the  wild  coyotes  of  the  plains,  and 
there  was  a  time  when  I  hated  them  enough 
to  kill  them.  They  will  smile  and  seem  pleased 
when  the  missionaries  teach  their  children,  and 
then  they  w^ill  take  the  children  to  their  own 
homes  and  tell  them  that  the  missionaries  are 
fools,  and  that  the  wisdom  of  the  white  men 
is  not  so  great  as  the  wisdom  that  has  come 
down  to  the  Pueblo  peoples  from  the  Fathers. 
"I  could  not  go  back  to  the  school  again, 
and  I  did  not  know  how  to  earn  my  living 
among  the  w^hite  people.  At  school  they  had 
tried  to  teach  me  not  to  live  as  an  Indian,  but 


A   CIVILIZED  HEATHEN  189 

they  had  not  taught  me  how  to  live  in  any 
other  \va\'.  So,  although  it  was  dull  here,  I  put 
awa\'niy  fine  dresses,  donned  the  costume  of  my 
own  people  again,  and  began  anew  the  life  of  an 
Indian  woman.  This  pleased  the  people  of  the 
pueblo,  and  for  a  time  they  treated  me  better. 
Can  you  not  give  me  some  whiskey  ?  I  want  it 
only  for  medicine — only  for  medicine,  I  assure 
you ;  and  I  feel  Yer\'  sick. 

"One  time  there  came  a  white  man  to  live 
in  this  pueblo.  He  was  an  ethnologist,  and  he 
came  to  study  the  lives  of  the  Pueblo  Indians. 
The  governor  liked  him,  and  took  him  to  live 
in  his  own  house,  and  the  man  studied  our 
language  and  made  pictures  of  us.  When  this 
man  saw  me  I  spoke  to  him  in  English,  and 
he  was  greath'  surprised  that  I  could  speak  it 
so  well.  He  came  to  see  me  every  day,  and 
talked  to  me  about  books,  and  about  the  great 
cities  he  had  seen,  and  he  asked  me  many 
questions  about  my  people.  One  day  I  showed 
him  a  little  picture  I  had  painted,  and  he 
stroked  m3'  hair  and  said  I  \vas  a  civilized 
heathen.  It  was  not  long  until  this  Avhite 
man  told  me  that  he  loved  me ;  and  I  loved  him 
more    than   I  loved   any    other    thing    on    the 


190  TALES  OF  THE  SUN- LAND 

earth.  He  was  very  different  from  the  slow 
men  of  my  nation,  and  he  said  such  nice  things 
to  me.  In  time  he  came  to  our  house  to  live. 
He  said  we  would  live  that  wa^-  until  time  for 
him  to  go  to  his  own  home,  and  then  he  would 
take  me  with  him  to  his  home,  and  marry  me. 
My  own  people  were  angry  with  me,  as  the^' 
think  a  Pueblo  woman  should  not  wed  any  but 
a  Pueblo  man.  I  cared  little  what  they  thought, 
for  I  was  happier  than  any  other  woman  in 
the  world.  I  could  have  gone  away  with  that 
man  and  lived  with  him  forever  alone  in  a 
cave  in  the  mountains. 

"One  day  I  came  home  from  the  fields 
where  I  had  been  to  gather  green  maize,  and  I 
found  this  man  asleep  on  some  blankets  on  the 
floor.  I  stooped  down  and  kissed  him,  very 
gently,  so  as  not  to  waken  him.  He  often 
slept  in  the  daytime,  and  when  he  slept  I  was 
always  very  quiet  so  as  not  to  disturb  him. 
This  time  he  had  fallen  asleep  while  he  had 
been  reading  a  letter,  and  he  held  the  letter  and 
a  small  picture  in  his  hand.  An  Indian  had 
been  to  a  Mexican  town  where  there  is  a  post- 
office,  and  he  had  brought  the  letter.  I  went 
out  in  the  shade  of  the  wall  to   prepare    the 


A   CIVILIZED  HEATHEN  191 

maize,  but  1  could  not  work  for  thinking  of  the 
letter  he  held  in  his  hand  as  he  slept,  so  I  entered 
the  house  again,  la3^  down  by  his  side  very 
genth',  and  1  read  the  letter  and  looked  at  the 
picture. 

"Do  you  know  how  it  would  seem  if  the 
one  dearest  to  you  on  earth  should  all  at  once 
become  the  thing  3'ou  hated  most  ? 

"That  was  the  way  I  felt,  for  the  letter 
was  from  his  wife,  and  the  picture  was  a 
picture  of  his  wife.  That  man  was  a  \vhite 
devil,  and  he  had  lied  to  me  and  told  me  he  had 
no  wife.  I  knew  then  why  he  always  delayed 
marrying  me,  and  I  knew  he  was  a  liar  with 
a  black  heart.  I  knew  that  when  he  tired  of 
me  he  would  go  his  way  and  leave  me  to 
be  reviled  by  my  own  people.  He  la\^  there 
sleeping,  \vith  a  smile  on  his  face;  but  he  was 
nearer  his  death  than  he  had  ever  been  since  he 
was  born. 

"I  ought  to  have  killed  him;  I  think  it 
would  have  been  better  if  I  had  killed  him 
and  then  killed  m^'self ;  but  I  only  maimed  him. 
My  father  had  an  old  stone  ax  that  had  come 
down  through  many  generations.  It  was  an 
ax  that  had  been  used    long  ago    in  the  wars 


192  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

with  the  Navajos,  and  its  edge  was  as  sharp 
as  the  steel  axes  of  the  white  people.  I  took 
the  ax  and  with  one  stroke  I  cut  off  the 
hand  of  the  sleeping  man — the  hand  that  held 
the  letter.  Then  I  stood  over  him  with  the 
ax  in  my  hand  and  cursed  him ;  and  he  was 
a  coward,  and  he  cried  like  a  baby.  Then  I 
ran  away  from  the  house  and  away  from  the 
pueblo,  and  I  hid  in  a  dry  nrroyo  for  twelve 
days,  with  nothing  to  eat  but  yucca  roots 
and  wild  berries.  When  I  came  back  the  man 
had  gone,  and  the  people  of  the  pueblo  looked 
at  me  with  hatred.  I  stood  on  my  housetop 
and  cursed  the  people,  and  to  this  day  I  hate 
them  and  the3'  hate  me. 

"If  you  wnll  give  me  some  more  whiskey-, 
I  swear  to  3'ou  that  I  will  drink  but  a  swallow. 
I  am  really  sick,  and  the  whiskey  gives  me 
strength . 

"Well,  that  is  about  all.  When  my  white 
lover  was  gone,  no  Indian  would  marrA'  me, 
and  I  became  what  I  now  am.  I  could  not  go 
to  another  pueblo,  as  the  Pueblo  people  do 
not  like  outcasts.  I  could  not  go  among  the 
white  people,  for,  in  spite  of  m\^  education,  I 
was  nothing  but   an   Indian.      The  people  all 


I  stood  on  my  housetop  and  cursed  the  people 


A  CIVILIZED  HEATHEN  193 

hated  me,  but  in  the  silence  of  the  night  the 
men  would  steal  into  m^^  house,  and  they 
would  bring  me  the  whiskey  the^^  bought  in 
the  Mexican  towns.  Not  all  the  men  of 
course;  only  those  who  are  almost  as  wicked 
as  the  white  men.  One  time  when  I  was 
drunk  I  cut  a  man  with  a  knife  and  he  tore 
out  my  e\'e  with  his  hand.  When  the  people 
were  putting  herbs  on  m^^  e3^e  I  thought  of 
the  time  when  I  had  translated  the  poem  of 
'The  Raven.' 

"My  life  now  is  a  bad  life.  When  I  have 
whiskey  I  am  drunk,  and  when  I  am  not 
drunk  I  am  worse,  for  then  I  hate  every  white 
man  in  the  world,  and  ever\^  Indian,  too.  Will 
you  not  give  me  more  whiske\"  ?  Please  let  me 
keep  it  all.  Whiskey  is  all  I  live  for,  and  I  am 
very  poor,  so  poor  that  it  will  be  a  long  time 
before  I  have  money  enough  to  bu^'  any  for 
m^'self. 

"To  talk  with  3'ou  reminds  me  of  my  life 
in  the  schools.  Ah,  the^^  teach  wonderful 
things  in  the  schools !  Have  3'ou  read  the 
poems  of  Homer?  I  love  to  read  them. 
See?  I  have  two  books  of  the  poems  of 
Homer,   and   I   read   them    every  day.      These 


194 


TALES  OF  THE  SUN- LAND 


fools  around  me  cannot  read.  They  tell  old 
tales  of  the  Fathers,  and  make  prayers  to  the 
sun,  and  they  think  they  are  better  than  I. 
I  am  twenty-one  years  old,  and  it  is  four  3'ears 
since  I  came  from  the  schools.  Ah,  curse  those 
schools  and  the  people  who  teach  in  them  !  But 
for  them  I  w^ould  not  be  able  to  read  Homer, 
but  I  would  now  be  a  happy  w^oman.  Is  there 
not  a  poem  in  your  language  about  the  bliss  of 
ignorance  ? 

''Good  bye.  I  trust  I  have  not  wearied 
you  with  my  doleful  tale.  If— if  you  can  give 
me  a  little  monc^'  I  will  always  pray  for  you, 
for  I  am  a  poor  woman  and  I  need  money  very 
badlv." 


THE  BRUJA  BONITA 


TtfBRUJA 


..X  .Xn..,.„„n.,.Ililh. 

"z: :;s;::z„ 


LUMBERING  in  the  placid  sunshine 
of  the  Rio  Grande  valle\"  lies  the 
little  mud-built  pueblo  of  Santa 
Clara,  one  of  the  historic  Indian 
villages  discovered  by  Coronado, 
and  whose  people  and  their  ancestors,  according 
to  their  own  traditions  and  the  conjectures  of 
the  archaeologists,  have  dw^elt  in  beautiful 
Santa  Clara  canon  and  the  cliff  houses  of  Pu-Ye 
for  more  than  sixteen  hundred  years.  To  one 
who  sees  the  place  for  an  hour  or  a  day,  and 
does  not  see  into  the  lives  of  its  people,  it  seems 
like  a  dream-village  hidden  away  from  the 
turmoil  of  the  world,  whose  inhabitants  seem 
to  have  eaten  of  the  lotus  and  to  care  for 
naught  but  rest  and  peace. 

But  of  all  Indian  pueblos,  Santa  Clara  is  the 
most  turbulent,  and  its  inhabitants  the  most 
quarrelsome  and  vindictive.    A  feud  rages  in  the 

197 


198  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

village,  and  grows  more  bitter  as  time  goes  on. 
At  first  it  began  over  the  right  of  a  particular 
man  to  succeed  to  the  great  office  of  cacique, 
that  peculiar  office  whose  incumbent  is  at  once 
ruler,  priest,  wizard  and  prophet.  It  was  al- 
lesred  that  the  succession  to  the  office,  in  the 
case  in  point,  was  irregular,  and  that  the  man 
who  claimed,  and  secured  the  office,  was  an 
impostor. 

Matters  w^ent  from  bad  to  worse;  two 
factions  sprung  up,  and  one  evil  day  the 
governor  of  the  pueblo  soundly  pummeled  the 
sacred  face  and  form  of  the  cacique.  The 
latter's  adherents  proclahned  that  the  great 
spirits  would  cause  most  dire  punishment  to  be 
inflicted  upon  the  wicked  governor.  But  no 
harm  befell  him,  and  his  faction  gained  new 
strength  from  the  ranks  of  the  enemy.  Finally 
the  feud  grew  until  neutrality  was  no  longer 
possible,  and  every  householder  was  enrolled  in 
the  ranks  of  one  of  the  opposing  factions. 
Members  of  the  opposing  factions  often  fought 
with  hands  or  clubs,  and  sometimes  knives 
were  used,  and  guns  threatened.  Revenge  was 
sought  in  every  way  by  both  sides,  and  con- 
sisted of  everv  sort  of  retaHation,  from  destroy- 


THE  BRUJA   BOXITA  199 

ing  crops  to  acrimonious  accusations.  One 
member  of  the  faction  of  the  governor 
estranged  the  affections  of  the  wife  of  a  man  of 
the  opposition,  and  the  case  was  brought 
before  the  council  of  the  principales.  The 
wrong-doer  was  fined  a  burro  and  a  goat, 
which  he  paid  to  the  injured  husband,  and  then 
he  lay  in  wait  for  him  behind  the  wall  of  the 
estiifa,  and  the  two  men  fought  in  the  dust  of 
the  plaza,  to  the  edification  of  the  small  bo^'s 
and  naked  girls  who  played  together  regardless 
of  the  squabbles  of  their  elders. 

The  feud  still  continues,  and  seems  to 
grow  worse  with  the  passing  of  the  years. 
The  government  ofiicials  who  investigate  the 
condition  of  the  Indians  gravely  predict  that 
there  is  serious  danger  of  an  outbreak  in  the 
pueblo,  in  which  many  members  of  the  warring 
factions  will  be  killed.  And  Santa  Clara  is  a 
place  from  which  those  who  xQam  to  see  the 
Peublos  dwelling  in  picturesque  peace  had 
better  keep  away. 

The  buxom  widow  of  Po-tseh  became  in- 
volved in  the  feud,  and  when  sitting  by  her 
mud  fire-place  molding  Uttle  images  of  the 
rain-god,  or  husking  blue  corn  in  the  sunshine 


200  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

in  front  of  her  door,  many  were  the  acrimoni- 
ous things  she  said  about  the  governor  and 
his  faction.  The  widow's  husband  had  been  a 
strong  adherent  of  the  governor,  but  luckily 
for  his  chances  for  domestic  felicity,  he  died 
when  the  vendetta  was  still  young.  After 
his  death  the  devoted  widow  cut  her  hair 
in  mourning,  and  wailed  the  death-wail,  as 
a  sorrowing  widow  should.  But  while  she 
was  mourning,  she  kept  a  "weather  e^-e"  out 
for  such  good-looking  young  men  as  had 
found  no  help-meets,  and  it  was  hinted  that 
she  even  looked  with  secret  favor  upon  staid 
heads  of  families  and  fathers  of  children.  The 
widow  grieved  for  a  full  month ;  then  one  day 
she  went  to  Espailola,  bought  a  quart  of  very 
bad  whiskev,  and  in  the  morning  was  found 
drunk  in  her  house  in  company  with  an  Indian 
whose  reputation  was  far  from  good. 

Widowed  Mrs.  Po-tseh,it  thus  appears,  was 
a  woman  of  congenial  and  convivial  tastes. 
She  was  of  so  hospitable  a  nature  that  many 
a  warfaring  Indian  from  a  neighboring  pueblo, 
or  Mexican  who  chanced  to  be  journeying  up 
or  down  the  valley,  was  entertained  in  her 
house  through    the    long  nights   of  winter  or 


THE  BRUJA   BOXITA  201 

the  lonesome  nights  of  the  summer  time,  when 
the  village  was  quiet,  and  the  working  people 
all  asleep.  And  in  the  second  year  of  her 
widowhood  she  became  the  mother  of  twin 
babies,  two  brown  little  girls,  who  were  half 
Mexican  and  half  Pueblo.  The  children  grew 
up  wnth  the  Santa  Clara  feud,  and  until  they 
went  to  Santa  Fe  to  school,  the^-  knew  not 
that  all  peoples  did  not  waste  the  sweetness 
of  existence  in  factional  hatreds. 

The  two  little  half-breed  babies  were  bap- 
tized in  the  big  adobe  church  that  frowns  so 
gloomih^  upon  the  Rio  Grande,  and  one  of  them 
was  given  the  name  of  Carmelita,  and  one  \vas 
christened  Alicia.  They  had  other  names  as 
well,  old  Indian  clan  names  that  they  never 
heard  except  among  their  own  people.  Carme- 
lita's  Indian  name  was  ''The  Beautiful  Duck 
w4th  Pink  Feathers  Under  Its  Wing,"  but  as 
that  w^as  rather  an  elongated  cognomen,  even 
for  an  Indian,  the  brown  little  maid  came  to  be 
known  only  by  her  "church  name"  of  Carme- 
lita. Alicia  also  had  a  long  Tewan  name,  but 
as  it  grew  into  disuse  early  in  her  career,  and 
as  it  would  make  quite  a  draft  upon  space,  it 
will  be  omitted  here. 


202  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

Carmelita,  in  appearance,  favored  her  Mexi- 
can father,  while  AHcia  was  of  the  Indian  t^^pe, 
and  resembled  her  mother  in  every  way.  When 
a  mission  school  was  opened  in  the  pneblo, 
Carmelita  attended  daily,  and  soon  learned  to 
speak  well  in  the  Spanish  language.  Alicia 
loved  best  to  throw  mud  at  the  mission  teacher 
and  then  scamper  across  the  bare  plaza,  and 
her  mastery  of  the  soft  Castilian  speech  was 
very  slow.  Then  the  two  girls  went  for  a  year 
to  the  school  at  Santa  Fe,  and  when  they 
returned,  they  were  two  plump  3'oung  maids 
with  rounded  forms,  and  the  eyes  of  swains 
of  both  factions  to  the  feud  were  cast  in  ad- 
miration upon  them.  Alicia  soon  forgot  her 
year  among  the  teachers,  became  a  partisan 
of  the  cacique's,  and  in  many  ways  gave 
evidence  that  she  \vas  the  daughter  of  her 
mother.  Carmelita  sided  Avith  the  governor, 
but  on  feast  days  was  always  partial  to  the 
Mexican  visitors,  and  was  not  well  liked  by 
the  clannish  people  of  her  race.  In  time  she 
fell  in  love  with  a  Mexican  herder,  and  took  no 
pains  to  conceal  her  preference,  and  then  the 
people  of  the  pueblo  were  more  unkind  to  her 
than  ever. 


THE  BRIJA  BO  SIT  A  203 

When  Carmelita  was  fifteen  3xars  old,  she 
had  developed  into  a  woman,  as  do  the  daugh- 
ters of  the  Rio  Grande  valley,  who  become  wo- 
men in  form  while  they  are  yet  girls  in  3'ears ; 
and  the  brother  of  the  ruling  cacique  sought  to 
Avin  her  for  his  wife.  She  detested  the  man,  who 
was  a  brute  and  a  drunkard,  and  flatly  refused 
to  marry  him.  Contrary  to  the  iisual  Indian 
custom,  her  mother  attempted  to  coerce  her, 
but  to  no  avail ;  and,  in  the  heat  of  anger,  she 
drove  Carmelita  from  her  house.  The  girl 
found  shelter  with  one  of  her  relatives,  a  deaf 
old  widow  who  paid  but  little  heed  to  the  com- 
ings or  goings  of  the  girl ;  and  for  many  days 
her  mother  and  sister  refused  to  speak  to  her. 
Carmelita  cried  a  great  deal,  but  she  remem- 
bered that  Faustino  Lucero  loved  her,  and  she 
believed  that  as  soon  as  he  should  come  to  the 
pueblo  to  again  visit  her,  all  would  be  well. 
And  it  might  be,  too,  that  Faustino,  seeing  she 
had  no  home,  would  marry  her  and  settle  down 
with  her  to  live  happily  in  one  of  the  vacant 
houses  of  the  pueblo.  The  people  might  object 
a  little  at  first,  but  such  things  had  been,  and 
might  be  again,  especially  as  the  governor  liked 
her.    Faustino  was  a  Mexican,  it  was  true;  but 


204  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

was  she  not  half  Mexican  herself?  And  the 
lines  of  blood  and  clan  had  come  to  be  almost 
forgotten  in  the  degenerate  days  of  the  feud 
and  the  encroachment  of  the  Mexican  and 
white  settlers  in  the  valley. 

While  Carmelita  was  longing  for  a  visit 
from  Faustino,  a  member  of  the  cacique's 
faction  died  in  his  bed  of  blankets  one  night, 
and  was  found  cold  and  stark  in  the  morning. 
No  perceptible  ailment  had  afflicted  him,  and 
a  hushed  whisper  went  among  his  sorrowing 
kindred  to  the  effect  that  a  brujn,  or  witch, 
might  be  in  the  pueblo.  The  next  day  the 
little  daughter  of  the  deceased  man  was  found 
dead  in  a  small  field,  where  she  had  gone 
alone  to  gather  com.  And  then  a  toothless 
old  crone  remembered  that  the  dead  man  had 
one  day  spoken  crossly  to  Carmelita,  and 
that  she  had  made  a  sharp  answer  to  him. 
The  next  day  a  snake  bit  the  sacred  ankle 
of  the  cacique,  and  while  his  brother  was 
bandaging  the  wound,  he  suggested  that 
Carmehta  hated  the  cacique  and  all  his 
people.  The  snake  bite  was  not  serious, 
and  was  not  from  a  venomous  reptile;  but 
the  mere  fact  of  havin^:    been    bitten    at    all, 


THE  BRVJA   BOXITA  205 

and  of  hearing  the  ^vhispered  allusion  to 
Carmelita,  caused  the  \vorth\'  cacique  to  retire 
to  the  fastness  of  his  secret  chamber,  and 
meditate  for  four  days.  While  he  was  fasting, 
the  members  of  the  medicine  order  looked 
askance  at  Carmelita  when  they  chanced  to 
meet  her,  and  she  began  to  feel  that  some 
great   danger  threatened   her. 

And  then  Faustino  came.  He  reached 
the  pueblo  on  the  afternoon  of  an  October 
dsi\  that  had  been  set  aside  by  the  Indians 
as  a  day  of  rest.  He  rode  a  brown  pon^^, 
and  he  wore  a  wide  hat  with  a  silver  band 
about  it,  and  a  beautiful  red  necktie  was 
tied  like  a  knotted  rope  about  his  neck.  In 
his  pocket  was  a  pouch  of  tobacco  for  the 
cacique^  a  pint  of  whiske^^  for  the  governor, 
and  a  little  mirror,  a  bag  of  candy,  and  a 
photograph  of  himself,  for  Carmelita.  He 
rode  through  the  upper  plaza  with  a  clatter, 
and  galloped  down  into  the  lower  plaza, 
Avhere  Carmelita  dwelt.  Before  he  disrfiounted 
from  his  pouA'  he  saw  in  the  door  of  an  upper 
house  a  face  that  was  to  him  the  most 
beautiful  face  in  the  world,  and  he  threw  his 
reins    over    the    pony's  head  and  climbed  the 


206  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

rude  ladder  before  he  had  had  time  to  speak 
to  any  of  the  few  Indians  who  were  loitering 
about.  The  two  retired  into  the  room,  a  pair 
of  plump  red  arms  went  around  the  Mexican 
boy's  neck,  he  was  greeted  with  a  kiss,  and 
the  dark  locks  of  Carmelita  w^ere  hanging  over 
his  shoulder,  ^vhere  she  had  pillowed  her  head. 
''Carmelita  mia.!  How  is  it  with  you  the 
long,  long  time  since  I  have  seen  3-011  ?  I  can- 
not say  to  you  how  lonely  has  been  my  heart 
since  I  last  was  here,  and  every  day  I  have 
longed  for  my  bonita  sweetheart  who  dwells 
in  Santa  Clara.  But  a  great  gringo  from 
Colorado  has  been  in  the  valley  buying  sheep, 
and  he  paid  me  twenty  pesos  a  month  to 
help  drive  his  flocks.  I  went  as  far  to  the 
north  as  Antonito,  and  I  say  to  you,  duke, 
that  never  have  I  seen  such  a  city  as  is 
that  one  of  Antonito.  The  windows  of  the 
houses  are  like  great  looking-glasses,  and 
the  tiendas,  oh,  loved  one,  how  can  I  describe 
to  3^ou  those  wonderful  tiendas  !  All  the  goods 
that  are  known  in  the  world  are  there  for 
sale,  and  in  some  of  them  as  man^-  as  four 
men  are  selling  beautiful  things  at  once.  It 
was    there    that    I    got    this    for    the    most 


THE  BRUJA  BONITA  207 

beautiful  girl  that  lives  in  all  the  world," 
and  he  drew  from  his  pocket  the  little  mirror. 

The  girl's  breath  came  short  and  fast  as 
she  gazed  upon  the  trinket  with  greedy 
pleasure,  and  then  again  her  arms  w^ent 
around   the  brown  neck   of  the  boy. 

"But  how  is  it  with  \'ou,  amante?  And 
why  are  a'ou  here  instead  of  at  3^our  mother's 
house?     Come,  let  us  go  there,  "  said  Faustino. 

Then  Carmelita  explained  the  sad  happen- 
ing to  him,  and  also  told  him  of  the  looks  of 
suspicion  that  \vere  cast  upon  her  since  the 
deaths  and  disasters  had  occurred  in  the 
pueblo. 

"And  I  fear,  sweet  Faustino,  that  the 
wicked  brother-in-law  of  the  cacique^  whom 
I  refused  to  wed,  will  try  to  make  the  people 
believe  I  am  a  bruja.  " 

"A  bruja  !  "  laughed  Faustino,  kissing  her. 
"Well,  you  certainly  are  the  most  bonita  bruja 
that  ever  breathed  the  air  or  changed  men 
into  animals.  But,"  his  face  darkening,  "this 
must  not  be.  It  is  a  very,  very  evil  thing  to 
be  a  bruja^  and  the  luck  is  very  bad  when  one 
is  called  bruja  falseh^  If  these  people  come 
to  think  3^ou   are  a  bruja,  the3^  will   kill  you." 


208  TALES  OF   THE  SUN -LAND 

The  girl's  eyes  fell,  and  the  bo3^'s  e^^es  filled 
with  tears,  for  he  had  lived  in  the  Pueblo  coun- 
try all  his  life,  and  knew  that  the  Indians  were 
even  more  relentless  than  the  ignorant  ones  of 
his  own  people  in  the  hunting  out  and  killing 
of  witches.  But  danger  yet  seemed  afar  off, 
and  with  the  true  Mexican  spirit  he  preferred 
not  to  go  halfway  to  meet  trouble,  so  he 
threw  off  his  cares,  and  again  began  to  chatter 
jo3^ously  to  his  sweetheart.  Her  spirits  rose 
with  his,  and  soon  they  had  almost  forgotten 
that  such  a  thing  as  danger  was  in  the  world. 
The  old  aunt  of  Carmelita,  with  whom  she 
lived,  came  in,  saw  Faustino,  greeted  him 
warmly,  counselled  Carmelita  to  get  him  food, 
and  then  Avithdrew  as  should  a  wise  aunt  who 
has  no  need  for  an  extra  niece  to  be  a  per- 
manent incumbrance  upon  her  house  and  larder. 

Then  there  was  an  hour  that  will  always  be 
remembered  by  Faustino  and  by  Carmelita  as 
well.  They  were  only  a  Mexican  youth  and  a 
half-breed  Indian  maiden,  seated  on  an  adobe 
settee  in  a  second-story  house  in  dull  old  Santa 
Clara;  but  the  theme  they  had  to  talk  about 
changed  all  their  surroundings  for  them,  and 
they  were  as  happy  as   though  the  little  mud 


THE  BRUJA   BOX  IT  A  209 

pueblo  had  been  a  marble  city,  the  second-stor3' 
house  a  palace,  and  they  a  king  and  a  queen. 
For  love  was  with  them,  and  it  drove  care 
from  them  and  made  them  forget  all  sorrow 
and  all  time  but  the  happy  now.  What  they 
said  need  not  all  be  written  here.  Though  the 
\vords  were  simple,  the  language  was  sweeter 
to  them  than  any  other  the^'  will  ever  hear. 

Faustino  invoked  any  number  of  Spanish 
saints  to  bear  witness  to  his  great  love  for 
Carmelita,  and  while  she  knew  already  that 
he  loved  her,  it  made  her  very  happy  to  have 
him  tell  her  so,  over  and  over  again. 

"And,  Carmelita,  "  said  the  boy,  "  Am  I  not 
a  grown  man  now  ?  See  !  my  mustachios  are  so 
long  that  the^'  can  be  seen  at  a  distance,  and 
iTi\'  mother  says  I  will  not  now  grow  any 
taller.  You  are  full-grown,  too;  and  if  the 
good  saints  will  send  just  one  more  gringo  to 
Espanola  for  sheep,  and  I  can  be  employed  by 
him  for  two  months,  then  can  we  be  married. 
I  have  saved  twenty  pesos  from  the  last  grin- 
go's employment,  and  in  two  months  more, 
I  could  save  forty  more,  and  then  we  would  be 
very  rich,  for,  besides  all  the  money  I  should 
have,  my  mother  sa3^s  she  w411  give  me  a  burro 


210  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

and  a  cow,  and  the  field  that  lies  next  to  our 
house,  when  I  am  married.  Will  we  not  then 
be  very  rich  ?  ' ' 

''But  does  your  mother  say  3^ou  ma3'  marry 
me?  "  asked  the  girl,  suspiciously.  ''I  fear  she 
will  not  consent  that  a'OU  marry  an  Indian, 
and  if  she  does  not,  cannot  we  be  married  an^^- 
how  and  dwell  here  in  Santa  Clara?  " 

"Santa  Clara  is  very  beautiful,"  said  the 
boy;  "and  with  you  I  should  be  very  happy 
here.  But  the  people  here  hate  each  other  so 
much,  and  some  of  them  Avould  hate  me;  and 
we  should  be  far  happier  in  the  new  house 
I  shall  build  close  to  my  mother's  house  on  the 
north." 

"  The  people  here  would  not  hate  you ;  they 
could  not,  for  3^011  are  so  good.  And  I  fear 
3"Our  mother  will  not  consent  that  3'ou  marry 
me.  Does  she  not  still  desire  that  \^ou  marry 
the  daughter  of  3^our  neighbor,  Sehor  Baca?  " 

"Yes,  she  does  so,"  replied  Faustino,  his 
countenance  falling.  "But  I  have  so  long 
worked  for  m_v  mother  that  she  loves  me  very 
much;  and  when  I  at  last  go  to  her  and  say 
1  will  never  be  happy  any  more  in  the  world 
until   I  have  3^ou  for  my    wife,   then  she  will 


THE  BRiJA   BOXITA  211 

kiss  me,  and  say  to  me  that  I  ma\^  bring  3'ou 
to  her.  Then  will  \'ou  kiss  my  mother  and 
sa3'^  3^ou  are  her  daughter,  and  then  the  padre 
will  marry  us,  and  we  will  be  happier  than 
people  ever  were  before." 

"  Alay  the  saints  speed  that  happy  day," 
said  the  girl.  "But  go  now,  and  put  your 
pon^^  in  the  corral,  and  when  you  return  I 
will  have  the  supper  read^^  and  you  and  I 
will  eat  it  here  all  alone,  just  as  we  shall 
do   when   we   are  married." 

Faustino  climbed  down  the  ladder,  singing 
a  song  about  a  happy  squirrel  that  lived  in 
a  pinon  tree,  and  after  he  had  put  away 
his    pony    he    went    to    deliver    his    presents. 

The  cacique  did  not  rise  from  where  he 
was  sitting  before  the  fire,  nor  did  he  speak, 
but  he  took  the  proffered  bag  of  tobacco. 
His  taciturnity  made  an  impression  upon  the 
Mexican,  for,  taken  with  his  sweetheart's  fear, 
he  felt  it  boded  no  good.  The  governor  took 
the  pint  of  whiskey  with  muttered  thanks, 
drank  some  of  it,  and  buried  his  face  in  his 
hands  to  again  plot  vengeance  upon  his  hated 
rival.  Much  depressed,  Faustino  went  again 
into  the  plaza  and  there  met  Alicia,  the  sister 


212  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

of  Carmelita.  He  spoke  to  her,  and  she  re- 
plied shortl3\  Then  she  asked  wh^-  he  was  at 
Santa  Clara  so  late  in  the  day. 

''  Why,  to  visit  with  your  sister,  the  bonita 
Carmelita;  for  what  else?"  said  P'austino, 
ga^dy.  *'You  are  very  pretty,  Alicia,  but  all 
the  great  beauty  of  your  mother,  and  your 
grandmother,  and  your  grandmother's  grand- 
mothers for  two  hundred  years,  was  saved  u]) 
by  the  saints  and  given  to  the  honita  Car- 
melita at  her  birth." 

''Bonita,   yes;    but   a   honita    hruja,''   said 
Alicia,  gruffly,  as  she  turned  and  shuffled  away, 
in   the   twilight. 

Faustino  again  climbed  the  ladder  that  led 
to  the  home  of  Carmelita's  aunt,  and  found  his 
sweetheart  alone  in  the  room,  busily  engaged 
in  preparing  a  supper.  She  was  sitting  on  the 
cement  floor  of  the  room,  before  the  odd  little 
fire-place,  and  was  cooking  tortillas,  w^hile  a 
squirrel  was  simmering  over  the  fire.  The  rudd\' 
blaze  of  the  pinon  fire  shining  into  her  face 
made  Faustino  think  he  had  never  seen  her  so 
beautiful  before,  and  after  gazing  upon  her  for 
a  moment  from  the  doorw^ay,  he  put  his  arms 
about  her  neck  and  kissed  her. 


THE  BRUJA   BO  KIT  A  213 

"Sweetheart,  723/0,"  he  said,  "to  see  you 
busy  with  the  cooking  like  a  little  house-wife, 
makes  me  long  all  the  more  for  the  time  w^hen 
we  shall  be  in  our  own  little  casa,  and  can  sing 
to  each  other  and  caress  each  other,  and  tell 
tales  to  each  other  from  morning  to  night. 
Will  that  not  be  a  glad  time?  We  will  have 
some  goats,  and  a  burro,  and  it  ma}-  be 
that  in  time  I  can  make  enough  money  by 
working  for  the  rich  gringos  to  buy  another 
pony,  and  then  we  can  have  a  wagon  and 
drive  to  Espahola  on  Saturda3^s,  and  to 
church  at  Santa  Cruz  on  Sundays,  like  a 
real  Don  and  his  Senora.  And  on  the  day 
of  the  great  fiesta  of  Santa  Clara,  we  shall 
come  here  and  see  the  dance,  and  on  ever^'  such 
day  you   shall   hai^e   a  new  gown." 

The  girl  had  been  listening  with  pleased 
and  wide-open  eyes,  but  her  countenance 
saddened  when  he  mentioned  the  fiesta.  She 
said  : 

"No,  Faustino,  we  \vill  not  come  again  to 
Santa  Clara  when  once  we  are  awa^^  and  have 
a  casa  of  our  own.  The  people  here  are  m^- 
people,  with  them  I  have  alwa^'S  lived,  but  they 
like  me  not.     M3'  mother  passes  me  b\^  without 


214  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

a  word,  my  sister  frowns  upon  me,  and  even 
now  I  doubt  not  that  the  cacique  and  the 
medicine  men  are  talking  as  to  whether  they 
should  kill  me  for  a  witch.  It  is  a  sad  thing 
not  to  have  the  love  of  one's  own  people ;  3'et 
I  think  your  people  are  more  mj--  people  than 
are  these  folk  of  Santa  Clara,  for  I  am  more 
Mexican  than  Indian.  I  like  not  the  wa^^s  of 
this  place  of  my  birth;  I  like  not  the  cachina 
dance,  that  knows  not  modest^^ ;  I  like  not 
this  worship  of  times  that  are  long  gone  from 
the  earth,  nor  the  hatred  for  knowing  new 
things  that  the  people  of  this  place  hold.  Glad 
will  be  the  da\'  when  we  are  gone,  and  when 
I  can  let  my  hair  grow  as  a  Mexican  woman, 
and  dress  as  do  the  women  of  your  people. 
But  come,  our  food  is  ready." 

They  ate  for  a  time  in  silence,  and  just  as 
they  had  finished,  an  old  Indian  came  into  the 
room.  He  sat  down  taciturnh',  and  gazed  into 
the  fire  for  a  time  in  silence.  He  did  not  live 
in  that  house,  Carmelita  was  no  relation  to 
him,  and  the  3'oung  people  wondered  why  he 
was  there;  but  they  said  nothing.  Soon  the 
old  man  turned  from  gazing  into  the  fire,  and 
said : 


"  He  gazed  into  the  fire  for  a  time  in  silence." 


THE  BRCJA   BOXITA  215 

"Friend,  is  not  the  pony  you  rode  here  to- 
day a  swift  runner  .  " 

"Yes,"  answered  Faustino. 

"Do  \^ou  sleep  all  the  hours  of  the  night?  " 
again  asked  the  Indian. 

"When  I  am  herding  the  flocks,  or  driving 
cattle  for  the  gringos,  I  am  glad  when  comes 
the  hours  of  sleep.  But  when  I  come  to  Santa 
Clara,  where  I  have  many  friends,  I  care  not 
much  to  sleep,"  replied  the  bo^-,  half  smiling. 

"Times  come  when  it  is  good  not  to  sleep, 
and  when  it  is  doubly  good  if  one  have  a  fast 
horse  that  will  not  rebel  if  two  people  ride  him 
at  once,"  said  the  old  Indian.  And  giving  the 
3^oung  Mexican  a  meaning  look,  the  Indian 
drew  his  blanket  about  him,  and  went  out  of 
the  back  door  of  the  room,  climbing  down  on 
the  side  of  the  house  that  faced  awa}^  from  the 
plaza. 

When  he  w^as  gone  the  two  lovers  gazed  at 
each  other  with  wide-open,  questioning  eyes. 
Why  had  the  Indian  spoken  so  strangely  ?  Was 
there  danger  for  them,  and  was  he  trying  to  give 
them  a  guarded  w^arning  to  mount  Faustino's 
horse  and  leave  the  pueblo  ?  But  if  the  medicine 
men  intended  harm  to  Carmelita,  it  would   be 


216  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

impossible  for  them  to  leave  without  detection. 
And  with  troubled  faces  the  two  lovers  sat, with 
clasped  hands,  and  gazed  into  the  dying  fire. 
Faustino  well  knew  the  horrible  punishment 
inflicted  upon  hrujas,  and  his  mind  was  filled 
with  terrible  visions  of  his  Carmelita,  hanging 
b\^  the  neck  to  the  wall  of  the  estufa,  while  the 
crazed  men  shot  arrows  into  her  quivering 
flesh.  He  thought  of  the  horror  of  seeing  her 
body,  denied  a  proper  burial,  burning  slowly  to 
ashes,  as  the  red  fanatics  danced  about  it,  and 
reviled  it,  and  shot  arrows  into  it.  And  in 
misery  he  clasped  the  Indian  girl  in  his  arms 
and  wept.  The  situation  was  too  sad  to  permit 
of  much  conversation,  and  for  two  hours  the 
lovers  sat  silently  embracing  each  other,  while 
the  darkness  of  night  grew  thicker  and  denser 
over  the  little  mud  pueblo. 

Without  warning  the  door  of  the  room 
opened,  and  the  two  lovers  sprung  to  their  feet 
with  aflrighted  gasps. 

They  expected  to  sec  a  band  of  half-naked 
and  painted  men,  coming  to  bear  Carmelita 
away  to  the  torture;  but  instead,  they  only 
saw  Carmelita's  sister,  Alicia. 

Alicia     went    close    to    the    two    cowering 


THE  BRUJA   BOXITA  217 

people,  lowered  her  voice  to  a  whisper,  and 
hurriedly  said:  '' Carmelita,  you  are  my  sister, 
and  when  I  come  to  speak  truth  to  my  o\vn 
heart,  I  know  that  I  love  you  more  than  I 
love  an^^  other  person  in  the  world.  I  am 
a  bad  woman,  and  you  are  a  good  woman, 
and  because  you  are  good  and  I  am  bad,  I 
have  tried  to  make  myself  believe  I  hated  you 
and  wished  you  harm.  When  the  words  went 
forth  among  the  people  that  it  is  3'ou  who 
are  the  wicked  hruja  who  causes  all  the 
trouble  here,  I  did  not  deny  it,  and  I  even 
helped  to  spread  the  words  and  cause  3'ou 
harm.  I  knew  not  what  I  did  until  to-night, 
but  I  have  just  been  in  the  plaza  listening  to 
the  making  of  medicine  in  the  estufa.  I  listened 
through  a  hole  in  the  wall  where  I  could  hear, 
and  the  people  knew  not  that  I  was  there. 
They  are  making  ready  to  kill  you,  sister; 
and  when  the  hour  of  midnight  comes,  unless 
you  go  away  before,  strong  men  w411  come 
here  and  bear  you  away  to  your  death. 
Faustino  they  will  not  harm,  for  he  is  not 
of  us ;  yet  if  the^^  become  crazed,  as  men  do 
who  seek  bruj'as,  they  ma}^  even  harm  him. 
You    must    get    away    to    a    place    of  safety. 


218  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

And  it  is  you,"  turning  to  Faustino,  "who 
must  get  her  to   such   a  place." 

The  three  stood  gazing  at  each  other  with 
distended  eyes,  too  frightened  to  know  w^hat 
to  do  or  say  next.  Carmelita  was  first  to 
recover  the  use  of  her  faculties,  and  she  took 
her  sister  in  her  arms  and  kissed  her.     She  said  : 

*'I  cannot  get  away,  sister,  and  to  tr_v 
-would  only  be  to  place  Faustino  in  danger. 
But  I  have  no  fear.  I  am  glad  that  you 
are  to  me  a  sister  again,  and  that  I  may 
tell  you  that  I  love  3^011  as  I  have  always 
loved  you.  And  you,  Faustino,  know  that  I 
love  you  above  all  the  things  of  the  world, — 
love  you  so  much  that  I  will  not  have  you 
endanger  yourself  for  me.  You  can  stay  wnth 
me  another  hour  and  be  safe ;  and  then  you 
must  go  down  into  the  plaza,  and  tell  those 
whom  you  meet  that  I  am  a  hruja,  and  that 
you  are  leaving  me  as  soon  as  you  learned 
the  truth.  Then  take  your  pony,  and  ride 
away  while  it  is  yet  safe ;  and  before  thcA- 
begin  to   torture  ine." 

The  girl  fell  into  her  lover's  arms,  and 
nothing  w^as  said.  In  all  their  simple  lives  not 
one  of  them  had  ever  faced  death  and  danger 


THE  BRUJA   BONITA  219 

and  misery  and  degradation  all  at  once,  and  the 
awfulness  of  the  situation  dazed  them.  While 
they  were  standing  silent,  with  terror-stricken 
faces  and  sinking  hearts,  a  soft  whistle  was 
heard  coming  from  the  ground  below  the  rear 
door.  They  all  started  in  new  fear,  and  stood 
like  frightened  antelopes  awaiting  the  attack 
of  wolves.  Again  came  the  soft  whistle,  and 
then  the  sound  of  a  man  stealthily  climbing 
the  ladder  was  heard.  Faustino  involuntarily 
drew  himself  to  his  full  height,  grasped  a  bowie- 
knife,  and  stood  ready  to  defend  his  sweetheart 
as  long  as  he  could.  Carmelita  sunk  into  a 
heap  on  the  floor,  and  Alicia,  with  a  wicked 
expression  on  her  Indian  face,  also  drew  a  knife 
and  placed  herself  in  an  attitude  ready  to 
spring  upon  the  invader.  Then  the  door  was 
gently  opened,  a  white  head  covered  with  a 
flaring  sombrero  cautiously  appeared  in  the 
aperture,  and  the  new-comer  quickh^  glanced 
over  the  room  and  at  the  occupants.  Carmel- 
ita was  so  frightened  that  she  believed  it  was 
the  devil  incarnate,  who  was  glaring  at  her 
with  e^^es  which  her  fevered  imagination  mag- 
nified to  four  times  their  real  size.  Faustino 
onh^  clutched  his  knife  with  a  firmer  grasp,  and 


220  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAXD 

awaited  the  time  to  spring  and  strike.  But 
Alicia's  face  cleared,  she  let  her  hand  fall  to  her 
side,  and  she  gasped  the  word  ''Miguel,"  and 
looked  wonderfully  relieved. 

"Miguel,"  however,  became  suddenly  ani- 
mated, and  with  a  cat-like  spring  he  was  inside 
the  door,  had  drawn  a  big  six-shooter  from  his 
holster,  and  had  a  "bead"  square  on  the 
iniddle  of  Faustino's  forehead. 

"Drop  that  knife,  3'ou  infernal  greaser,  or 
I'll  bore  a  hole  through  your  black  head,"  said 
the  white-headed  one,  in  a  cold,  even,  but  very 
business-like  voice. 

"Peace,  Miguel,  all  is  well,"  said  Alicia; 
"and  peace,  Faustino,  for  Miguel  is  my  friend, 
and  will  not  harm  you  when  he  knows  what 
we  have  to  tell.  It  is  thus,  Miguel ;  the  makers 
of  medicine  believe  my  sister  to  W  a  hruja,  and 
we  think  that  to-night  they  will  strive  to  take 
her  to  the  torture.  Faustino  is  her  lover,  and 
he  and  I,  hearing  your  step  upon  the  ladder, 
believed  it  was  the  war-chief  and  his  men  come 
to  take  her  away,  and  we  were  going  to  try  to 
defend  her  for  a  Httle  time,  until  too  many  of 
them  came  for  us  to  stand  before.  But  the 
good  spirits  have  sent  you  instead." 


THE  BRUJA   BON  IT  A  221 

Faustino  silently  sheathed  his  knife,  the 
man  called  Miguel  put  his  revolver  away, 
and  Carmelita,  somewhat  recovered  from  her 
paroxysm  of  terror,  rose  to  a  sitting  posture. 
The  white  man  stared  blankh'  at  the  others  for 
a  full  minute,  then  said  "  Well  I'll  be  damned  !  " 

The  sudden  relaxation  of  the  situation,  and 
the  change  from  supposed  danger  to  momen- 
tary safety,  caused  the  four  persons  to  stand 
for  a  time  in  stupid  silence.  Then  the  white 
man  turned  with  a  grin  to  Alicia,  put  his  big 
hand  on  her  shoulder,  and  said  : 

"Look  here,  ni}-  Loo-loo  Dais^',  don't  you 
remember  that  you  are  under  contract  not  to 
call  me  by  that  greaser  name  Miguel  any  more. 
My  name  is  Michael,  Mike  for  short, —  plain 
Michael  J.  Wentworth,  and  I  don't  stand  being 
called  Miguel.  If  3'ou  were  a  Mexican  and  a 
man,  instead  of  an  Indian  and  a  girl,  I'd  shoot 
holes  in  3'our  boots  and  make  you  dance,  while 
you  apologized  for  calling  me  names;"  and  the 
big,  white  face  of  the  blonde  Missourian  separ- 
ated its  upper  and  lower  parts  in  what  was  a 
very  large  and  voluminous  grin. 

Mike  Wentworth  was  a  cowboy,  or  cow- 
man, as  he  preferred  being  called.      He  had  an 


222  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

abiding  hatred  for  Mexicans,  towns,  and  the 
ways  of  civilization;  and  he  had  about  explained 
the  situation  when  he  had  called  Alicia  his 
^'Loo-loo  Daisy."  Alicia,  like  her  mother, -sA^as 
a  woman  who  loved  wine,  song  and  the  opposite 
sex ;  and  she  was  not,  in  any  wise,  a  stickler 
for  any  of  the  proprieties.  Mike  had  met  her 
once,  when  driving  a  herd  down  the  valley  past 
Santa  Clara,  had  struck  up  a  friendship  with 
her,  which  he  explained  to  himself  b\^  saying 
she  w^as  not  so  foolish  as  a  white  woman  nor 
so  dumb  as  a  Mexican ;  and  she  had  become 
what  he  was  pleased  to  call  his  Loo-loo.  As 
soon  as  Mike  understood  that  Faustino  and 
Alicia  had  not  been  making  ready  to  ''carve" 
each  other,  he  said  : 

"Shucks,  young  feller,  I  almost  took  a  shot 
at  you  just  for  luck,  for  I  thought  you  was 
pulling  3'our  knife  on  the  girl.  But  if  those 
howling  idiots  had  been  after  you  instead  of  it 
being  me  just  coming  up  here  in  a  peaceful 
frame  of  mind  to  find  my  Loo-loo,  you  wouldn't 
have  stood  any  more  show  than  a  rabbit.  You 
see,  me  and  a  pardner  of  mine  are  taking  the 
chuck-wagon  of  our  outfit  down  the  valley,  and 
as  our  camping  place  is  onh'  about  a  mile  from 


THE  BRVJA   BOXITA  223 

here,  I  thought  I'd  come  over  and  hunt  up  AHcia 
and  some  other  likely  young  Indian  girl,  and 
we'd  go  over  to  the  camp  and  have  a  little 
jamboree.  But,  seeing  you're  all  in  a  sort  of 
box,  I  think  I'll  give  up  the  gaj'-Lothario  racket 
for  the  time  being,  and  try  to  get  you  and  your 
girl  out  of  the  mess.  Xow  let's  get  down  to 
the  facts  of  the  situation." 

All  the  time  he  was  talking  Alicia  had  gazed 
at  Faustino  with  a  half-shamed,  half- wistful 
expression,  and  a  moisture  that  was  danger- 
ously near  being  tears  came  into  her  eyes. 
Faustino,  who  knew  something  of  the  ways 
of  cowboys  and  Indian  maidens,  showed  no 
surprise.  Carmelita  looked  reproachfully  upon 
her  sister,  but  said  nothing. 

Mike  scratched  his  head  and  thought. 
Presently,  he  said : 

"  Young  feller,  you  are  sweet  on  Carmelita, 
as  I  gather  the  facts  ?  ' ' 

"She  is  m^"  sweetheart,"  said  Faustino, 
simply. 

"Same  as  Alicia  is  mine,"  said  Mike,  grin- 
ning. "But  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  her? 
If  you  let  her  sta^-  here,  she  will  be  killed ;  and 
if  you  don't  let  her  stay  here,  it  kind  o'  follows 


224  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

that  you've  got  to  take  her  awa\',  and  what  in 
blazes  will  yoti  do  with  her  if  \'oii  do  get  her 
away?  " 

*'I  will  marry  her,"  said  Faustino. 

"The  devil  3'ou  will!"  said  Alike,  in  real 
surprise. 

"  I  w^ill  marr\^  her.  Why  not?  I  lovelier," 
said  the  Alexican. 

''  Well,  its  catching  before  killing,"  said  Mike, 
''and  if  you  don't  get  her  out  of  this  ancient 
and  historic  hell's  half-acre,  your  chances  for  a 
wedding  are  slim.  Let's  see  ;  suppose  you  and  I 
draw  our  guns,  put  Carmelita  ahead  of  us, 
march  out  of  the  jnicblo,  and  shoot  any  red- 
skinned  galoot  that  tries  to  stop  us.  This  ain't 
the  right  century  for  hanging  Avitches.  Our 
good  Puritan  forefathers,  w^ho  knew  all  about 
the  intentions  of  the  Creator,  had  the  run  of  the 
range  on  that  cheerful  pastime,  and  the  rights 
ended  with  them.  Are  you  willing  to  make  a 
try  at  waltzing  out  and  taking  our  chances?" 

"You  must  not  expose  yourselves,"  said 
Carmelita.  "  The  people  will  be  frenzied  if  they 
see  me  escaping,  and  they  will  kill  us  all." 

Michael  J.  Wentworth  strode  up  and  down 
the   dimly -lighted    little    room,   his   head   hung 


THE  BRUJA   BOXITA  225 

low  in  thought,  and  his  Hps  involuntarily  giving 
vent  to  profane  ejaculations  that  were  not  com- 
plimentary to  believers  in  witchcraft  or  to 
Indians  in  general.  Finally  he  stopped  and 
carefully  inspected  Carmelita  and  Faustino 
in  turn. 

"By  gad,  I  believe  it'll  work,"  he  said. 
"They're  about  the  same  size,  and  one  sweet 
consolation  is  that  their  hides  are  the  same 
color.  It  really  was  a  great  scheme  to  invent 
a  Mexican  out  of  an  Indian,  a  Spaniard,  and 
more  Indians  !  May  blessings  be  upon  the  head 
of  old  man  Cortes  and  his  inventive  and  amor- 
ous soldiers,"  and  the  cowman  deliberately 
began  to  measure  the  width  of  Carmelita 's 
shoulders  with  his  hands. 

"What  do  you  intend?"  asked  Faustino. 
"  What  plan  have  you  for  escape  ?  " 

"  Wh^^  if  you  ain't  afraid  of  being  strung  up 
for  a  bruja,  I'd  like  to  have  3^ou  get  Carmelita's 
togs  on  and  stay  here  to  stand  off  the  gang, 
while  the  girl  gets  into  your  duds,  and  just 
politely  ambles  out  of  the  pueblo  with  me.  I 
allow  that  your  duds  will  fit  her,  and  if  they 
do,  it  stands  to  reason  that  3^ou  can  wear  hers. 
And  with   Mike  Wentworth  peacefulh-  and  po- 


226  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

litely  escorting  a  Mexican  boy  out  of  the  pueblo, 
at  a  time  when  foreign  societA^  is  not  wanted,  I 
think  I  can  get  her  to  my  camp  in  good 
order.'' 

The  proposition  met  \vith  great  favor,  and 
Mike  cHmbed  dow^n  the  ladder  to  take  a  Avalk 
in  the  plaza,  while  the  change  of  garments  was 
effected.  He  met  an  Indian  prowling  along  the 
wall,  and  spoke  to  him,  and  when  the  Indian 
answered,  discovered  that  it  was  a  man  he 
knew. 

"Why  are  3'ou  in  the  pueblo  at  this  time, 
Miguel  ?  "  asked  the  Indian  guard,  suspiciously. 

"Just  to  have  a  little  'go'  with  Alicia," 
answered  Wentworth,  carelessh^  "Here  is  a 
dollar,  amigo,  with  which  to  buy  \'Ourself  some 
whiskey,  for  medical  purposes  onl^'.  How  goes 
it  in  the  pueblo  ?  " 

"The  time  is  bad,"  answered  the  Indian, 
clutching  the  dollar.  ''Have  you  not  heard  of 
the  evil  times  that  have  come?  And  do  you 
not  know  that  the  maid  Carmelita,  the  sister 
of  Alicia,  is  a  wicked  bruja?  " 

'^  Brujal  Jumping  Jerusalem  !  Wh\^  that's 
tough,  ain't  it?  "  answered  Mike,  in  well  feigned 
surprise.     "Are  3'ou  dead  sure  she's  a  brujaV 


THE  BRIJA   BONITA  227 

"There  is  no  doubt,"  answered  the  Indian. 

''And  what  will  be  done  with  her?"  asked 
Mike. 

"That  is  for  the  cacique,  the  governor  and 
the  principales  to  decide,"  answered  the  Indian, 
stolidly. 

"Well,  then,  I  reckon  I  had  better  vamos 
from  here.     Don't  you  think  so  ?  " 

"It  is  not  well  that  3'ou  remain  here," 
answered   the   Indian. 

"And  I'd  better  get  the  boy  Faustino  to 
vamos,  tambien,  do  3'ou  not  think?" 

"Does  the  Mexican  know  the  girl  to  be  a 
brujaV  asked  the  Indian. 

"Oh,  no,  he  don't  dream  of  such  a  thing. 
He's  just  a  simple  boy  and  knows  nothing. 
I  will  tell  him,  and  get  him  to  go  awa^^  with 
me.  It  is  very,  very  bad  to  be  a  bruja,  and 
I  am  sorry  I  have  talked  with  one,"  said 
Went  worth,  with  a  rueful   expression. 

"It  is  w^ell  that  j'-ou  and  the  boy  Faustino 
depart,"  said  the  Indian. 

"All  right,  amigo,''  answered  Mike.  "And 
as  you  are  the  only  Indian  I  know  that  can 
talk  United  States,  suppose  3^ou  go  ahead  of 
us  a  few  feet  to  explain,  if  we  happen  to  meet 


228  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

any  of  the  inuck-a-mucks  that  have  charge  of 
doing  up  the  witches." 

*'It  is  well,"  answered  the  Indian.  "But 
few  of  our  people  can  talk  in  the  language  of 
the  Americanos,  and  I  will  go  ahead  of  you  to 
tell  the  people  who  it  is  that  leaves  the  pueblo 
in  the  night." 

Wentworth  climbed  the  ladder  again,  mut- 
tering as  he  went. 

'*  There's  an  educated  Indian — nit,"  said  he. 
''He's  been  to  a  school  for  four  years,  and  has 
had  fine  instruction  in  theolog3',  and  here  he  is 
thirsting  for  the  blood  of  the  only  pretty  girl 
that  ever  lived  in  this  God-forsaken  mud  corral." 

When  the  cowman  entered  Carmelita's 
room,  he  found  that  the  change  of  apparel 
had  been  successfully  accomplished.  Carmelita 
had  donned  the  high-topped  boots,  the  blue 
trousers,  the  red  shirt  and  handkerchief,  and 
the  wnde  sombrero  of  Faustino,  and  he  had 
put  on  her  clothes,  and  tied  a  shawl  over 
his  head.  Carmelita  had  tucked  her  long  black 
hair  under  the  sombrero,  and  at  a  safe  dis- 
tance and  in  the  darkness,  was  in  little  danger 
of  detection. 

"How am  I  to  get  awa\'from  here  after  3'ou 


THE  BRUJA   BOX  IT  A  229 

are  gone  ?  And  will  it  be  safe  for  me  to  go  and 
leave  Alicia  ?  "  asked  Faustino. 

"I'll  try  to  fetch  your  togs  back  with  me 
after  I  get  the  girl  safe  to  m^-  camp ;  and  when 
I  come  back,  Alicia  must  come  with  us,  for  these 
howling  hoodoos  will  be  so  hot  when  they  find 
they  can't  kill  Carmelita,  that  they  will  kill  any 
of  the  rest  of  us  the\'  can  get  their  hands  on. 
But  we  must  be  tripping,  my  prett\'maid,"  said 
he  to  Carmelita. 

Neither  of  the  Indian  girls  understood  more 
than  half  of  what  Wentworth  said  to  them, 
for  while  they  had  both  spent  a  year  in  an 
Indian  school,  their  command  of  the  English, 
or  the  Spanish  language  was  imperfect.  But 
Carmelita  understood  the  gestures  that  accom- 
panied the  words,  and  after  pressing  a  long 
kiss  upon  the  lips  of  her  strangely-clad  sweet- 
heart, she  pulled  the  sombrero  over  her  eyes, 
and  followed  Wentworth  down  the  ladder. 

Wentworth's  conversation  with  the  English- 
speaking  Indian,  and  the  big,  round  dollar  that 
accompanied  it,  had  paved  the  way  for  an  easy 
exit,  and  he  and  the  girl  walked  out  of  the 
pueblo  unchallenged.  They  reached  tbe  chuck- 
wasfon  in  safetv,  and  Carmelita  was  soon  safelv 


230  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

within  the  covered  wagon,  Avhile  Went  worth 
explained  the  situation  to  his  partner,  and  the 
two  began  devising  wa^^s  to  rescue  AHcia  and 
Faustino. 

It  was  finalh'  arranged  that  the  men  should 
return  to  the  pueblo,  taking  Faustino 's  clothes 
Avith  them.  Carmelita  was  compelled  to  take 
off  the  clothes  and  don  a  suit  that  belonged  to 
AY ent worth's  partner.  Then  the  two  cowboys 
went  back  to  the  pueblo,  Went  worth  indulging 
in  the  picturesque  language  he  used,  which  Avas 
a  mixture  of  the  English  he  studied  in  school, 
and  the  peculiar  psftois  of  the  cow  country-. 

When  the}'  entered  the  pueblo,  and  had  got- 
ten a  few  steps  Avithin  the  plaza,  they  were 
halted  by  the  Indian  Went  worth  had  talked 
with. 

Went  worth's  partner  could  speak  Spanish, 
and  he  answered  the  Indian,  when  he  asked 
why  thcA^  were  there. 

"When  my  friend  left  the  pueblo  with  the 
Mexican  boy,  they  were  in  great  haste  to  leave 
the  hruja,  and  my  friend  forgot  his  horse,  and 
the  Mexican,  Faustino,  forgot  both  his  horse, 
w^hich  he  left  in  the  corrals,  and  his  revolver, 
which  he  left  in  the  house  of  Carmelita.      We 


THE  BRUJA   BOXITA  231 

will  get  those  things,  and  leave  this  bundle, 
which  contains  some  presents  for  Alicia,  and  go 
again  at  once.  Faustino  has  now  gone  into 
the  house  for  his  revolver,  and  he  will  soon  be 
ready  to  go." 

"How  could  the  Alexican,  Faustino,  get 
into  the  house  of  Carmelita?  "  asked  the  Indian, 
suspiciously.  ''The  house  is  guarded,  and  I 
have  not  seen  him  pass." 

"He  entered  from  the  outside  ladder,  from 
the  side  that  does  not  face  the  i^laza,"  answered 
the  cowman. 

"But  that  side  is  guarded,  too,"  said  the 
Indian. 

"No  doubt;  but  the  guard  would  let  him 
enter  when  he  knew  what  he  desired.  But  we 
will  goto  the  house  and  ask  him  to  make  haste, 
as  it  is  time  for  us  to  be  awa^^"  and  slipping 
two  more  dollars  into  the  guard's  hand,  the 
two  cowboys  climbed  the  ladder  to  the  room 
where  Alicia  and  the  Mexican  were.  Several 
bushy  heads  popped  out  of  dark  door-ways,  and 
several  pairs  of  e^^es  gazed  at  them,  but  the\^ 
were  not  hindered,  and  the  Indian  guard,  in  his 
own  language,  explained  why  they  had  come. 
An  Indian  went  to  the  corral  and  brought  out 


232  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

the  two  horses,  holding  them  ready  for  Fanstino 
and  Went  worth,  as  they  were  anxious  to  see 
them  out  of  the  pueblo  for  good." 

The  two  white  men  entered  the  room  and 
found  its  occupants  sitting  in  silence.  Tears 
were  in  the  eyes  of  the  girl,  and  Faustino  wore 
a  very  sad  expression.  It  was  no  time  for 
conjectures  or  explanations,  however,  and 
Wentworth  threw  the  bundle  to  the  Mexican, 
and  said : 

''Shinny  into  them  togs  as  quick  as  you 
can,  and  let's  get  out  of  this.  Hurry!  Those 
red  devils  are  getting  mighty  suspicious,  and 
they  won't  stand  monkeying  with." 

Faustino  took  the  bundle,  retired  to  the 
dark  room  that  opened  off  the  living  room, 
and  soon  returned,  clothed  in  his  own  apparel. 
Then  all  four  of  them  climbed  down  the  ladder, 
Alicia  carrying  the  bundle  that  now  contained 
her  sister's  garments. 

"  Why  does  Alicia  go  with  you?  "  asked  the 
Indian  guard,  who  stood  at  the  foot  of  the 
ladder. 

"  W^e  thought  it  well  for  her  to  visit  at  our 
camp,  as  she  has  done  many  times  before," 
answered  the  cowman  who  could  speak  Spanish. 


THE  BRUJA   BONITA  233 

''  What  has  she  wrapped  up,  that  she  carries 
upon  her  back?"  again  asked  the  suspicious 
Indian. 

*'She  has  food  which  we  have  bought  from 
her.  We  are  on  a  journey  with  our  cattle,  and 
our  food  is  almost  gone." 

"It  looks  much  Hke  the  bundle  Avhich  3'ou 
had  before,  and  which  3'ou  said  was  a  present 
for  Alicia,"  argued  the  suspicious  guide. 

*'  A  toad-stool  looks  much  like  a  mush-room, 
but  it  is  quite  different,"  said  Wentworth. 
"Look  here:  ^ve  have  treated  a'ou  well  and 
given  you  money,  and  you  know  there  is  danger 
in  this  place  to-night.  If  you  are  our  friend,  you 
will  not  keep  us  longer." 

The  Indian  sulkily  stood  to  one  side,  and 
the  little  party  passed  on.  They  hastened  over 
the  sandy  soil  to  the  camp,  and  when  once 
there,  Faustino  and  Carmelita  effected  a  change 
of  garments,  the  boA'  standing  behind  the  wagon 
and  passing  her  garments  in  to  her  and  she 
passing  his  out  under  the  Avagon  flap,  Avhile  the 
others  discussed  ways  and  means  at  a  little 
distance.  They  decided  that  it  would  not  be 
safe  for  the  Mexican  and  Carmelita  to  remain 
at  the  wagon,  and  as  they  expected  that  the 


234  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

flight  of  the  supposed  hruja  would  soon  be 
discovered,  Wentworth saddled  his  ponies  ready 
for  any  emergenc3^ 

Faustino  believed  that  it  would  be  safer  for 
him  andCarmelita  to  go  at  once  to  his  mother's 
house,  but  Wentworth  argued  that  as  soon 
as  Carmelita's  disappearance  became  known, 
mounted  Indians  Avould  search  the  road  that 
led  there.  Faustino  then  suggested  that  they 
should  go  to  the  home  of  a  friend  of  his,  who 
was  a  wood-cutter  living  in  an  isolated  place 
beyond  the  cliff  dwellings  of  the  Pu-Ye;  and  this 
was  decided  upon.  Ciirmelita  kissed  her  sister, 
hands  were  shaken  all  around,  and  the  Mexican 
and  his  sweetheart  moimted  ponies,  and  started 
up  the  lonely  road  through  the  valley  of  Santa 
Clara.  They  rode  in  silence  for  a  few  miles, 
when,  without  warning,  a  bullet  whizzed  by  the 
head  of  the  girl,  and  then  another  shot  was 
heard,  singing  close  to  their  ears. 

The  flight  of  the  girl  had  been  discovered  ; 
it  was  suspected  that  in  some  way  Faustino 
had  helped  her  to  escape,  and  a  party  of 
mounted  Indians  had  set  out  up  the  river 
to  overtake  them.  Just  as  this  party  had 
gotten    on    to    the    little    mesa    south    of  the 


THE  BRIJA   BOXITA  235 

Mexican  village  of  Gnchepangue,  one  of  them 
had  heard  the  beat  of  the  horses'  hoofs  down 
in  the  yciWqj  on  the  road  to  the  canon,  and 
they  had  ridden  until  they  were  close  enough  to 
discern  that  one  of  the  riders  w^as  a  girl,  and  an 
Indian  girl  at  that. 

The  ponies  ridden  b\'  Faustino  and  Carmel- 
ita  sprang  away  in  a  mad  gallop,  as  soon  as 
the  shots  were  fired,  and  the  Indians  spurred 
after  them  in  hot  pursuit.  The  sky  was  partly 
clouded  and  the  moon  only  came  out  occasion- 
alh^  When  it  shone,  it  enabled  the  pursued  to 
ascertain  the  actions  of  their  pursuers,  and  it 
showed  them  also  that  their  pursuers  were  not 
gaining  on  them  ver^^  rapidly.  But  with  every 
burst  of  moonlight  came  a  shower  of  bullets, 
and  w^th  their  heads  bent  dow^n  to  their  horses' 
necks,  the  fugitives  raced  on  and  pra^-ed  for 
darkness.  The  hoofs  of  the  horses  struck  fire 
from  the  stones,  branches  of  the  small  trees 
almost  scraped  the  riders  irom  their  saddles, 
and  there  w^as  imminent  danger  that  the  horses 
would  stumble  and  fall  into  some  of  the  arroyos 
and  ditches  on  the  way.  The  pursuing  Indians, 
now  being  out  of  the  region  of  an^-  Mexican 
settlement,  began  to  yell,  and  to  shout  curses 


236  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

at  the  hruja;  and  so  the  mad  little  band  raced  up 
the  canon.  Little  Indian  huts  were  passed,  gul- 
lies were  leaped,  the  horses  tore  madly  through 
thickets,  and  still  the  frightened  girl  and  her 
lover  clung  to  their  ponies,  and  raced  on,  in 
hope  of  finding  safety  in  some  way  that  the 
good  spirits  might  send  to  them. 

The  road  to  the  cliff  dwellings  is  long  and 
hard  and  steep,  but  it  can  be  shortened  in  miles 
if  one  will  ride  up  the  bed  of  a  mountain  torrent, 
that  is  dr^^  in  all  but  the  rainy  season.  Up  this 
water-way  Faustino  and  the  girl  turned  their 
horses,  and  up  it,  also,  rode  their  pursuers, 
shouting  Hke  demons,  and  firing  their  revolvers 
ahead  of  them  at  random.  The  horses  of  the 
Indians  were  not  as  swift  as  the  others,  how- 
ever, and  the  boy  and  girl  gained  rapidly,  as 
their  horses,  now  wildly  frightened,  tore  up  the 
bed  of  the  torrent.  When  the  top  was  reached, 
themoon  shone  outfor  aninstant,  and  Faustino 
turned  in  his  saddle  and  fired  down  the  gulch. 
A  yell  answered  his  bullet,  and  he  rode  on, 
cheered  with  the  hope  that  he  might  have  hit 
one  of  the  band  of  pursuers. 

Some  of  the  Indians  failed  to  reach  the  mesa 
that  was  at  the  upper  end  of  the  torrent  bed, 


THE  BRUJA   BON  IT  A  237 

because  their  horses  could  not  stand  the  strain, 
and  the  number  of  pursuers  was  reduced  to  a 
half-dozen.  Two  of  them  soon  fell  out  of  the 
race,  but  the  other  four  clattered  away  over  the 
ston^'  mesa,  hoping  to  get  a  shot  at  the  Indian 
girl  before  she  should  disappear. 

"Can  we  reach  the  house   of  3^our  friend, 
Faustino  ?  "  gasped  the  girl. 

"  Let  us  hope  so,  sweetheart.  IvCt  us  not  be 
without  hope,  and  do  a^ou  alwa^^s  look  ahead 
and  never  look  back,  and  thus  it  will  be  better 
with  us,"  said  the  boy.  And  turning  in  his 
saddle,  he  fired  another  shot  at  one  of  his 
pursuers,  who  had  forged  ahead  of  the  others 
and  was  rapidh^  gaining  upon  the  fugitives. 
The  biillet  struck  the  Indian's  horse  in  the 
forehead  and  killed  it,  and  left  its  rider  power- 
less to  continue  the  pursuit.  The  other  Indians 
were  a  considerable  distance  farther  away,  and 
the  hoof-beats  of  their  horses  sounded  fainter 
and  fainter,  showing  that  the  horses  wxre  be- 
coming exhausted,  and  the  riders  losing  ground. 
The  horses  ridden  b3'  the  Mexican  and  the  girl 
were  bathed  in  lather,  frothing  at  the  mouth, 
and  trembling  like  aspens  from  fatigue  and 
fright. 


238  TALES  OF  THE  SUN -LAND 

Presently  the  riders  came  in  sight  of  the  big, 
white  cliffs  that  frown  down  so  solemnly  upon 
the  little  valley,  and  they  knew  they  had  reached 
the  old  cliif-dwellings  of  the  Pu-Ye.  Faustino 
turned  his  pony  directly  toward  the  cliff,  and 
urged  his  companion  to  hasten  the  speed  of  her 
horse. 

^'  Let  us  not  go  to  the  Pu-Ye,"  said  Carmel- 
ita.  ''It  is  a  dark  and  silent  place,  and  it  is 
said  that  the  spirits  of  the  ancient  ones  meet 
there  at  night,  and  tell  to  each  other  old  tales 
of  the  time  when  they  dwelt  upon  the  earth  as 
men  and  women.  Let  us  strive  to  reach  the 
house  of  your  friend." 

''Our  horses  will  soon  drop  \vitli  fatigue, 
and  it  is  yet  four  miles  to  the  house  of  the 
wood-cutter.  If  we  can  reach  the  cliffs  and  get 
into  one  of  the  cliff  houses,  we  will  have  an 
advantage,  for  we  will  be  in  the  shadow,  and 
the  men  cannot  reach  us  without  climbing,  and 
as  they  climb  I  can  shoot,  and  you  can  hurl 
down  rocks." 

A  couple  of  hundred  yards  before  they 
reached  the  base  of  the  cliff,  Carmelita's  horse 
fell,  utterly-  exhausted.  Faustino  sprang  from 
his   saddle,  grasped   the  girl   about  the  waist, 


Up  this  perilous  ascent  the  boy  and  girl  made  their  way. 


THE  BRUJA  BO  NIT  A  239 

swung  her  on  to  his  horse,  and  was  mounted 
and  away  again,  within  a  minute.  Just  before 
he  reached  the  chff  his  own  horse  fell,  and  he 
and  the  girl,  hand  in  hand,  began  to  climb 
the  ascent. 

In  the  face  of  the  cliff  were  cut,  in  some  old 
age,  some  slit-like  footholds  that  the  prehistoric 
inhabitants  of  the  place  had  used  as  ladders, 
and  up  this  perilous  ascent  the  boy  and  girl 
made  their  wa^-.  The^-  were  almost  exhausted, 
and  in  a  frenzy-  of  excitement,  and  it  was  a 
marvel  that  they  did  not  slip  and  fall.  As 
they  were  half-way  up  the  side  of  the  cliff  the\' 
heard  the  3'ells  of  the  pursuers,  who  had  just 
discovered  the  fallen  horse  of  Carmelita. 

"Hasten,  sweetheart,  and  be  brave;  we  are 
almost  to  our  place  of  safet^^"  urged  Faustino. 
And  again  they  climbed  from  one  niche  to  an- 
other, up  the  almost  perpendicular  wall  of  the 
cliff. 

The^^  passed  the  first  tier  of  cliff  houses, 
but  were  compelled  to  stop  at  the  second,  as 
they  were  too  nearly  exhausted  to  go  farther. 
Faustino  drew  himself  up  to  the  little  entrance- 
aperture,  and  then  lifted  and  pulled  the  girl 
after  him ;  and  thev  sank  back  into  the  dust  on 


240  TALES  OF  THE  SUK-LAXD 

the  floor  in  utter  exhaustion.  The  dust  of  the 
cliff  houses  is  as  fine  as  flour,  and  their  move- 
ments in  it  caused  clouds  of  it  to  rise  in  the  little 
chamber,  and  settle  in  their  mouths  and  nostrils 
and  almost  stifle  them.  The3'  lay  for  a  few  min- 
utes in  utter  exhaustion,  and  then  the  girl  said: 

"How  long  will  it  be  until  the  men  can 
come  to  this  place." 

''They  can  soon  come  to  the  base  of  the 
cliff,  but  it  will  take  them  long  to  climb  up  here, 
if  they  can  at  all.  No  shots  were  fired  at  us 
w4ien  w^e  were  climbing,  so  the}-  must  have  been 
so  far  behind  us  that  the}-  feared  they  could  not 
hit  us." 

The  girl  put  her  arm  about  the  neck  of  the 
boy,  brought  his  head  down  upon  her  bosom, 
and  said : 

"  Sweetheart  of  mine,  it  is  but  a  little  time, 
but  the  counting  of  a  few  numbers,  until  the 
men  will  come  upon  us  and  kill  us,  as  they 
would  kill  beasts  in  a  trap.  If  I  had  done  what 
it  was  right  to  do,  I  would  have  sta3'ed  in  the 
pueblo,  and  let  you  go,  safe  and  free  upon 
A'our  way.  I  have  done  a  great  w^rong  to  3'ou 
to  let  3^ou  lose  3^our  life  in  protecting  me,  and 
it  is  that  alone  that  I  grieve  for.      But  before 


THE  BRUJA   BONITA  241 

the  men  come  upon  us,  I  want  to  tell  to  you 
again  the  tale  of  how  much  I  love  you.  You 
are  to  me  the  greatest  joy  in  the  world,  and  m3' 
love  for  3^ou  has  brought  me  more  happiness 
than  was  ever  known  b^^  any  woman  who  ever 
dwelt  upon  the  earth  before.  When  you  were 
away  from  me,  I  have  been  happy  in  dreaming 
of  the  time  when  I  should  be  your  wife  and  we 
should  dwell  together  all  the  days  and  nights ; 
and  when  3'ou  have  been  with  me,  my  happiness 
was  greater  than  is  that  of  the  blessed  ones 
who  dwell  in  the  land  of  Po-so-yemmo  in  the 
sun.  Sweetheart,  you  have  been  all  the  world 
to  me — all  the  world,  and  all  the  hope  and  joy 
and  goodness  and  happiness  of  the  w^orld !  I 
love  \^ou,  sweetheart,  more  than  I  have  words 
to  tell.  And  all  the  sorrow^  that  I  now  know  is 
the  sorrow  of  having  brought  3'ou  to  the  place 
of  3'our  death,  w^ien  you  might  have  been  safe 
and  free,  if  it  had  not  been  for  me." 

The  boy  tenderly  kissed  the  girl,  pressed  her 
closer  to  him,  and  said  nothing. 

"Do  3^ou  love  me,  sweetheart?"  asked  the 
girl. 

"Better  than  all  the  w^orld  besides,"  an- 
swered the  boy. 


242  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

''Better  than  the  long  years  of  your  life 
that  now  will  not  be  lived  ?  "  asked  the  girl. 

*' Yes,  sweet  one." 

"  Better  than  all  hope  of  the,  happiness  3^ou 
would  have  known  if  your  life  had  been  long? 
Better  than  the  joy  of  having  wife  and  children, 
and  living  to  a  ripe  old  age,  honored  among  the 
people  of  your  kind  ?  '' 

''  Better  than  all  that ;  better  than  anything 
in  the  world  but  the  J03'  of  loving  you." 

*'  Then  let  the  hunters  come,  for  I  am  ready. 
We  shall  be  killed  together,  and  together,  as 
spirits,  we  shall  go  into  that  life  that  lies  beyond 
this.  If  my  creed  is  true,  then  will  we  go  to- 
gether, hand  in  hand,  to  the  abode  of  Yo-See  in 
the  fair  land  of  the  sun.  And  if  the  creed  of  the 
people  of  your  race  is  the  true  one,  then  together 
shall  we  go  to  that  place  where  all  things  are 
justly  judged." 

A  bullet  whizzed  into  the  opening  of  the 
cave,  and  shattered  the  plastering  from  the 
ancient  stone  wall.  Faustino  arose  cautioush', 
peered  out,  and  saw  his  pursuers  stealthily 
nearing  the  face  of  the  cliff.  He  did  not  feel  like 
risking  a  shot  at  them,  preferring  to  wait  until 
they  began  to  climb  the  cliff;  but  he  felt  about 


THE  BRUJA   BOXITA  243 

him  to  learn  if  an}-  rocks  could  be  found.  His 
hand  came  in  contact  with  an  old  metate  stone, 
that  had  served  as  a  hand-mill  for  the  cliff- 
dwellers^  centuries  ago,  and  with  further  search 
he  found  another.  He  made  no  noise  and  he 
and  Carmelita  lay  prone  in  the  dust,  waiting 
for  the  Indians  to  begin  to  climb. 

The  Indians  skulked  for  a  time  about  the 
base  of  the  cliff,  holding  a  parley-  in  a  low  tone, 
and  then  one  of  them  stealthily  crawled  away, 
and  one  of  the  others  began  to  climb  up  the 
rude  ladder  that  led  to  the  cliff  houses.  When 
he  was  about  half-way  to  the  entrance,  Faus- 
tino  hurled  one  of  the  stones  upon  him.  It 
struck  the  Indian,  and  he  fell  like  a  log  to  the 
ground.  Faustino  then  took  aim  at  the  re- 
maining Indian,  fired,  and  the  bullet  found  its 
mark,  for  the  Indian  3'elled,  and  sank  to  the 
ground.  The  captives  were  safe  for  a  time, 
but  were  much  concerned  as  to  what  they 
might  expect  from  the  Indian  who  had  stolen 
awa^^  They  believed  he  would  climb  to  the 
mesa  above  them  and  then  climb  down,  hoping 
to  take  them  unawares. 

' '  When  he  comes  we  must  fight  him  with  our 
hands,  for  my  last  bullet  is  gone,"  said  Faustino. 


244  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

They  lay  for  a  time  anxiously  peering  out  of 
the  little  porthole-like  entrance  to  see  the  Indian 
when  he  came.  Soon  they  saw  one  of  his  feet 
lowered, very  silently  and  cautiously,  feeling  for 
the  last  foot-niche  that  he  would  use  before  he 
sprung  within  the  cave.  As  though  guided  by 
the  same  inspiration,  both  Faustino  and  Car- 
melita  made  a  lunge  to  grasp  the  man's  leg,  and 
both  caught  it  at  once.  Excitement  lent  them 
strength,  and  they  pulled  so  vigorously  that  the 
man  lost  his  balance  and  toppled  over,  but  was 
held  from  falling  by  the  grasp  of  his  captors. 
They  pulled  him  into  the  cave,  and  in  an  instant 
the  strong  hands  of  the  Mexican  bo}-  were  chok- 
ing the  life  from  his  struggling  body.  Faustino 
crowded  the  Indian  back  in  the  dust,  climbed 
upon  him,  knelt  on  his  chest,  and  all  the  time 
choked  him  so  hard  that  the  man  was  almost 
dead. 

"Do  not  kill  him,"  said  Carmelita.  "It 
seems  that  we  may  be  spared,  and  if  it  is  to  be 
so,  let  us  not  kill.  But  let  us  bind  him,  and  then 
go  and  leave  him." 

The  Indian  had  climbed  with  a  knife  be- 
tween his  teeth,  which  had  fallen  when  he  was 
so    unexpectedly    thrust    upon    the    floor    and 


THE  BRUJA   ROXITA  245 

choked.  Carmelita  grasped  his  knife,  with  it 
cut  a  strip  from  her  skirt,  and  as  soon  as 
Fatistino  could  roll  the  man  over,  she  bound  his 
hands  together  behind  his  back  with  strips  of 
cloth,  that  held  as  firmly  as  though  they  had 
been  bands  of  iron.  Then  the^^  botmd  his  legs 
together,  and  gagged  him,  and  he  lay  silent  and 
motionless,  and  as  harmless  as  though  he  had 
been  dead. 

' '  Is  not  this  a  joyful  time  ?  ' '  asked  Faustino, 
complacently  gazing  upon  his  fallen  antagonist 
and  grinning  like  a  schoolboy  \\\t\\  a  new  kite. 

''Be  silent,"  said  Carmelita.  "The  ones 
below  ma\"  not  be  hurt  so  much  as  we  think 
and  ma^^  come  at  any  time.  Ah,  I  hear  one  say 
that  all  their  cartridges  are  gone." 

"Then  we  are  safe,"  almost  shouted  Faus- 
tino. "If  the\'  cannot  shoot  we  can  climb 
down  and  I  can  fight  them  with  this  knife  and 
with  stones.  Oh,  is  not  this  a  jo\'ful  time? 
And  will  not  m^-  compadre,  Pablo  Barillo,  open 
wide  his  mouth  when  I  tell  him  all  the  things 
that  have  befallen  us  this  night?  "  And  Faus- 
tino  rose  to  his  feet  and  administered  a  vigor- 
ous kick  to  the  body  of  the  prostrate  Indian 
who  lav  bound  before  him. 


246  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 

"But  we  are  not  yet  safe  and  free,  and 
a\vay  from  the  men  Avho  would  kill  us,"  an- 
swered Carmelita.  "At  an^^  time  other  men 
may  come  here,  and  they  ma}"  have  guns  and 
many  cartridges,  and  fresh  horses,  and  we  have 
nothing  but  this  metate  stone  and  a  knife." 

"  It  is  true,"  said  Faustino,  sobering.  "We 
are  yet  in  danger,  and  if  we  are  to  escape  from 
here,  it  must  be  soon.  And  I  am  in  so  great 
thirst  that  I  can  scarcely  open  my  lips." 

"Is  it  safe  for  us  to  climb  down,  and  pass 
the  men  below,  and  go  away?"  asked  Car- 
melita. 

"  Is  it  not  much  better  for  us  to  climb  up  to 
the  top  of  the  mesa,  and  then  go  away  into  the 
next  valley?  " 

"  I  could  climb  no  more,"  said  Carmelita, 
\yearily.  "  If  I  can  but  get  down,  and  escape 
those  below,  and  have  strength  to  get  away 
•before  more  men  come,  it  will  be  all  that  I  can 
do." 

"  But  if  we  climb  down,  the  men  below  may 
grasp  3'ou  and  do  you  harm  while  we  are 
striving  to  pass  them,"  said  Faustino. 

Carmelita  considered  soberh'  for  a  moment, 
and  then  said : 


THE  BRCJA    BOXITA  247 

"The  men  of  my  people  believe  me  to  be  a 
hruja,  and  while  they  will  lose  their  lives  to  kill 
brajas,  they  fear  them  more  than  the\^  fear  all 
other  things  in  the  world.  It  is  best  to  make 
them  fear  me,  and  escape  through  their  fear." 

"  But  how  ?  "   asked  her  companion. 

Instead  of  replying,  Carmelita  put  her  head 
out  of  the  opening  and  called  out :  "  Ho,  you 
below  I  It  is  I,  Carmelita  the  bruja,  who  speaks! 
Where  is  Lo-Ha,  the  coward  who  climbed  to 
the  top  of  the  mesa  and  then  climbed  down  the 
stone  ladder  to  kill  us  ?  Answer  me  or  I  will 
cause  \'OU  to  die  in  an  instant,  for  I  am  a  bruja 
and  can  kill." 

The  thought  that  the  powerful  bruja  might 
kill  them  had  not  entered  their  thick  heads 
before,  but  as  soon  as  it  did,  thev  were  tremen- 
dously frightened,  and  they  answered  at  once : 

"We  know  not  where  Lo-Ha  is.  A  little 
time  ago  we  saw  him  climb  down  the  cliff,  and 
at  once  he  became  silent  and  we  know  not  how 
it  is  w4th  him." 

"You  know  not,  you  fools  ?  Then  will  I  tell 
3^ou.  I  touched  Lo-Ha  with  my  hands,  and  at 
once  he  turned  to  dust,  and  now  he  is  lying  as 
dust,  upon   the  floor   of  this  cave.      Now  tell 


248  TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LA XD 

me  how  it  is  with  you,  and  if  you  do  not  tell, 
your  breath  shall  at  once  leave  your  bodies 
forever." 

"We  are  much  hurt,"  answered  one  of  the 
Indians.  "One  of  us  had  a  hand  shot  off,  and 
the  other  his  shoulder  broken  by  the  rock." 

"  And  now  if  you  do  not  at  once  get  beyond 
my  sight,  I  will  change  you  both  into  beasts. 
You,  who  have  only  a  broken  shoulder, can  walk, 
and  you  other  have  one  strong  arm  left.  You 
can  both  walk,  so  get  down  the  steep  place, 
and  out  of  m_v  sight  and  hearing  at  once,  else  is 
this  the  last  night  you  shall  ever  live  upon  the 
earth." 

This  command  was  what  Michael  J.  Went- 
worth  would  have  called  a  "sky-high  bluff," 
and  the  two  lovers  waited  in  great  suspense  to 
ascertain  what  effect  it  would  have.  But  it 
"worked."  And  the  Indians  at  once  went  to  a 
considerable  distance.  Then  the  lovers  climbed 
down  the  perilous  ladder,  and  hand  in  hand, 
took  up  their  weary  journey  to  home  and  safety. 

All  the  long  hours  of  the  dreary  night  the\' 
toiled  on,  sometimes  dropping  from  fatigue  and 
exhaustion,  but  each  time  rising  and  going 
forward  again,  for  hope  was  with  them  and  it 


THE  BRUJA   BOXITA  249 

gave  them  strength.  And,  as  the  sun  was 
coming  up  over  the  peaks  of  the  Santa  Fe 
range,  a  jaded  Mexican  boy  \Yith  bleeding 
hands  and  feet,  led  a  fainting  Indian  girl  wear- 
ing tattered  moccasins  and  a  skirt  cut  into 
strips,  into  a  little  adobe  house  that  looked 
from  a  low  mesa  down  upon  the  shifting 
channel   of  the   Rio  Grande  del  Xorte. 

There  was  a  startled  old  Mexican  mother, 
and  a  wide-mouthed  boA^  of  a  brother,  and  a 
jerky  story  told  between  smiles  and  tears  ;  then 
a  hot  breakfast  and  a  long,  long,  delicious  sleep. 
Then  baths  in  rain-water  and  amole  soap,  and 
another  hot  meal.  When  all  was  said  and 
done,  the  old  mother  took  the  Indian  girl  to  her 
heart  and  wept  over  her  and  the  boy,  altern- 
atelv  ;  and  she  gave  her  consent  to  their  union, 
and  began  planning  a  future  for  them  that  con- 
sisted, first  of  a  trip  to  the  church  at  Santa 
Cruz,  and  the  building  of  a  new  adobe  cottage 
next,  and  a  fandango  grande  to  end  it  all  up 
with,  in  a  meet  and  becoming  manner.  And 
Faustino  the  herder  and  Carmelita  the  half- 
breed,  rested,  refreshed,  fed,  and  clothed  in  clean 
garments,  were  made  man  and  wife;  and  they 
now  dwell  in  a  little  adobe  casita  that  is  made 


I 


250 


TALES  OF  THE  SUN-LAND 


cheery  all  day  long  b^^  the  songs  of  the  wife 
and  the  cooing  of  a  little  brown  babe,  that 
sits  upon  the  cemented  floor  and  plays  with 
bright  red  c/ziVi  peppers  for  toys. 


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